What An Idiot / Video Games A to K

Video Games #-D

• 7th Dragon: Nyala decides to step on Eden after 6 of his 7 Imperial Dragons got wasted. Later games reveal that this game takes place in the distant future, and therefore, this is his third attempt on invading Earth.
  You'd Expect: Nyala to think things through this time, and simply personally do a surprise attack on Eden and wreak havoc, like his Imperial Dragons did the entire time. He wouldn't have given Emel enough time to react and order the magic cannon to be fired, and the party was way out of Nyala's league at the moment.
  Or Even: Nyala to have done just that from the very beginning when then he kickstarted the Dragon invasion.
  Instead: He outright erects a big ass tower for no reason other than ego, and introduces himself to the whole world atop of said tower, while also bragging that nothing can harm him (evidently ignoring what happened to him in Atlantis and Tokyo).
  As a Result: Emel's got his exact location, and Nyala gets blasted by the cannon powered by human souls, which forces him to remain on the tower to recover. Luckily for him, he brought Haze to back him up, but even that is rendered moot, because Nyala's arrival prompted Emel and Aytel to help the party get the Dragon Chronicle, so they can use it to seal Haze away and create the Dragonslayer.
  It Gets Worse: By the time Nyala recovers, the party (now fully prepared to whack him) climps up his tower and kills him for good with the help of the Dragonslayer, eliminating all the remaining Dragons and Flowers pollution in the process.
• Advance Wars:
  • During the Gold Comet segments, Kanbei gets his ass handed to him by Orange Star a few times. His daughter, Sonja, gives him advice on how their army's numbers and bases should match or exceed their opponent's.
    You'd Expect: Kanbei would listen to his daughter and possibly take notes.
    Instead: He runs off into battle before Sonja can finish giving her advice and tell her father that a base's location is just as important as how many bases your side has. This leads to the infamous "MOUNTAIN OF TROOPS!" meme where Kanbei has a base on an island and thinks he can use it to overwhelm Orange Star, despite the fact that said base is on an island where his ground forces can't get off the island. The mission is even called "Kanbei's Error?" just to further highlight Kanbei's rash decisions.
  • Sonja does some investigation to figure out why Orange Star would be attacking several nations at once. Once she finds out that Black Hole was behind the manipulation, she knows where their CO, Sturm, is hiding.
    You'd Expect: Sonja would tell the other nations about her discovery, especially with Grit since he was also in on the investigation.
    Instead: Sonja decides to confront Sturm alone and he captures her.
  • In Black Hole Rising, Andy gets a letter from Black Hole CO Hake requesting to meet him at a specific location so he can challenge his army to a battle.
    You'd Expect: Andy to not show up to what is clearly a trap or have someone investigate.
    Instead: Andy shows up just to prove to Hawke that he's no coward. Hawke gracefully bows out when Andy beats him and Andy celebrates while he calls Nell with the news. Nell is extremely angry at Andy for leaving a front he was supposed to protect, which is now overrun by the enemy. Hawke's challenge was just a distraction. Whoops.
• AI: The Somnium Files: In his backstory, Falco has cornered a murderer he's been chasing for some time. The killer throws away his knife and Falco has him at gunpoint. However, the killer is quite confident that he'll get off scot-free and be back on the streets in no time.
  You'd Expect: The murderer to go quietly, possibly even feigning meekness and fear and simply let Falco take him away.
  Instead: The suspect brags about how he'll simply be sent to a "special hospital" and be back out on the street in no time. He even wonders aloud what sort of murderous mayhem he'll get up to next time. Unsurprisingly, Falco empties his gun into the man, triggering his Start of Darkness.
• Ann: Hana Itagaki, a student at the Delta Academy of Arts, has just caught her friend, Clara, having Sextra Credit with the principal. She records the whole tryst on her phone.
  You'd Expect: Her to sneak away and turn in the video evidence to the appropriate authorities, getting the principal fired and sent to jail.
  Instead: She waits until Clara has left and confronts the principal, alone, in the school garage, and tells him to his face that she recorded everything.
  As A Result: The principal strangles her to death to keep his secret from leaking, getting away with it since there were no witnesses, and she becomes a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl who curses the school.
• Armored Core: Nexus. Navis, a smaller-scale Corporation, activates a Lost Technology superweapon to keep their territory safe from the larger encroaching Corporations. This weapon is the robotic equivalent of a weapon of mass destruction. So, of course, it promptly goes nuts on them upon activation and destroys the very people who activated it, killing the Navis executives, leaving Navis in ruins and almost all of its employees and resources dead and destroyed.
  You'd Expect: The other Corporations, seeing Navis get completely wiped off the map by willy-nilly activating giant freakin' robots, would be a heck of a lot more cautious with the lost weapons that they found, and that they wouldn't ever activate those weapons without knowing exactly what those weapons did, what those weapons were capable of, and sure as all heaven not without being able to control them.
  Instead: Kisaragi, another MegaCorp that is apparently completely Genre Blind, does the exact same thing in the exact same game. Only this time, not only do they activate a copy of That One Boss of the entire Armored Core series (the AI of which has a Murder Is the Best Solution mentality no less), but they also activate hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of suicide weapons, all of which promptly go kamikaze on the rest of the Corporations and humanity in general. Oh, and it also gets the protagonist of the game, you, killed.
• Army of Two has a scene that actually lampshades this trope. Salem and Rios have been set up as the fall guys after they unwittingly killed a US senator to help their corrupt boss back S&C get him out of the picture so a bill to privatize the military will pass. They board a cargo plane to head back to Miami to stop him. But Phillip Cylde, crazy as hell mercenary, who has apparently cut his mouth to create a sick Joker-esque smile, has snuck aboard the plane.
  You'd Expect: Clyde to simply kill Rios and Salem while they are sleeping and try everything possible to avoid using guns... in a flying airplane. Or maybe even just planting a time bomb and jumping out of the plane before it goes off.
  Instead: He not only kills the pilots of the plane instead of his intended targets, he delays shooting them to gloat at how much he's going to enjoy killing them. This would be fine as he took Salem as a hostage and pretty much had control of the situation. But the US Air Force noticed the dead pilots, figured it was an approaching terrorist attack and started shooting at the plane. This gives Salem and Rios the chance to overpower Clyde and get themselves to cover. Clyde starts shooting wildly damaging the plane even further. Then Clyde throws a grenade, a short-sighted move in general. But it only gets worse as another hit from the US Air Force manages to roll the grenade back at him. Rios then lampshades Clyde's actions up to this point by saying "What an Idiot" and he and Salem head for the hovercraft at the back of the plane. But Clyde isn't done, he actually decides to fire a Javelin missile inside the plane. He apparently doesn't know how to use its "fire and forget" technology 'cause he misses and manages to help Rios and Salem by blasting open the jammed cargo door behind them. Rios and Salem escape on the hovercraft while Clyde ends up in the drink with the crashing plane. He survives, but he seriously screwed up his mission in so many ways.
• Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore: Arzette crosses paths with the first boss of the game, Klive who is a humanoid with the head and legs of a horse. Arzette can outmaneuver him by climbing the ladders in his boss area.
  You'd Expect: That Klive would pursue her by climbing on the ladders.
  Instead: He remains on the ground running back and forth during the boss fight, leading to Arzette having a tactical advantage where she can conk him with massive acorns.
• The Excuse Plot for the classic arcade game Asteroids: a spaceship pilot finds themselves in the middle of an Asteroid Thicket^note Asteroid fields in Real Life are much more expansive and uncrowded than how they are usually depicted in fiction, a famous example being Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.
  You'd Expect: The pilot would have realized how suicidally stupid it would be to park their spaceship in the middle of this asteroid field.
  Instead: They didn't realize the obvious danger and did exactly that.
  As A Result: The pilot is forced to fire shots at the asteroids to destroy them, and contact with any one of the asteroids is instant death.
• Banjo-Kazooie
  • At the beginning of the game, Gruntilda kidnaps Tooty.
    You'd Expect: That after locking Tooty up, Gruntilda would immediately either; A: Lock up her lair against any intruders, specifically Banjo and Kazooie, B: Given her vast magical power, she would nuke Banjo and Kazooie's house with them inside it before they could leave, (Something she later flat out does in Banjo-Tooie), right after grabbing Tooty or C. Simply confront the duo prior to them completing the training courses Spiral Mountain, where they lack the experience and several critical moves that would be needed for them to even begin to be considered a threat to her. Doing any one of these would allow her plans to go off unimpeded.
    Instead: She plays Orcus on His Throne for the entirety of the game, never directly dealing with them.
    Worse Yet: According to the Game Over Cutscene, Gruntilda could just tell her lackey to turn up the power and complete the transformation from hag into hot anytime she wanted.
    Therefore, You'd Expect: She tells her lackey to turn up the power immediately, or anytime during the several hours she taunts the heroes while they collect the collectibles of the game.
    Instead: She does the aforementioned later, either doing nothing but taunting the heroes as they get closer and closer to her, or work on her Pop Quiz Lethal Lava Land.
    Result: The heroes beat her in (again) aforementioned Pop Quiz Lethal Lava Land.
    So Now, You'd Expect: For Grunty to realize she is under no obligation to give back Tooty (which she also did something similar to later in Banjo-Tooie) and keep her hostage.
    Instead: She willingly gives up her hostage and runs away, even though she was under no real obligation to do so.
    Result: After coming home with Tooty, Banjo and Kazooie start to relax.
    You'd Now Expect: Tooty would just be happy to be home and leave the heroes alone.
    Instead: She insists that you have to properly defeat her before you can celebrate your victory. It can't be said with certainty that she would have been any nicer if they'd left her alone, but the outcome of this battle leaves her severely injured and vowing revenge, which leads to all of her villainous plots during the next three games.
    Worse Yet: The victim of the first game's plot and catalyst for the rest of the franchise's problems vanishes from the series entirely afterward. So what have our heroes gained?
    So Anyway: Following her defeat after the final battle, Gruntilda is left crushed under a large boulder, still alive but unable to escape herself.
    You'd Then Expect: Since said boulder is located literally right up from Banjo's house, that he and Kazooie would find some way to permanently keep said boulder in place and seal that witch away forever. Also that they would dissuade, or fight off Klungo to prevent him from aiding Grunty's escape.
    Instead: They leave the boulder and Klungo alone. For two years. During this time Grunty nearly escapes once, (which should have prompted the heroes to take some kind of action) and finally, her sisters are able to enable her escape, setting up the entire plot for the sequel.
    On That Note, You'd Also Expect: For Klungo to realize something: Even if he can push the boulder, Banjo and Kazooie are still at large and pose a threat to Grunty, as has happened twice already. So he should take a break from moving the boulder and head to their house, which isn't that far, and deal with them first, otherwise this would be All for Nothing.
    Instead: He wastes his time and strength hopelessly trying to move the boulder, so when Grunty's sisters arrive to destroy the boulder, they now have "that sssstupid bear" to deal with. Her sisters believe they have planed for that contingency, having built a BFG that sucks the life force out whatever it targets, which they plan to use to restore Grunty's body. However, it is revealed that despite the gun's power, it has a massive drawback in charging time between firings.
    You'd Now Expect: For her sisters to immediately target Banjo and Kazooie first back in their home in Spiral Mountain, while the two have no knowledge of their plan, (given that the gun has enough range to restore Bottles later on, this is possible). Alternatively, that the sisters would immediately gather the energy needed to restore Gruntilda first, so that when they do rescue her, Grunty can gain her body right away.
    Instead: They release Grunty first, (which alerts the heroes to their plan), their subsequent firings of the gun and recharge time delay Grunt's restoration long enough for BK to catch up and defeat them. When they eventually do, Grunty, to quote Kazooie, "runs off in a cowardly fashion like in Banjo-Kazooie".
    After All That's Happened, You'd Expect: For the heroes to learn their lesson from the previous game and leave her alone. Her sisters are crushed, Klungo left her, there's very little she can do at this point but sit and wait for the heroes.
    Instead: They go after her one last time, reducing her to a decapitated skull.
    And, For The Cherry On Top, You'd Finally Expect: That Banjo and Kazooie would find some way to make sure this skull can't get out. Burying her might be a good idea, especially considering that once again, her sisters and Klungo aren't around to dig her out this time. She'd be trapped forever.
    Instead: They just leave her thirsty for revenge on Cauldron Keep, her very base, where she can easily (well, maybe not easily) escape.
    Result: What do you know? It takes eight years, but in that time, she manages to bounce back to Spiral Mountain and become a threat to it again. Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!
• Baten Kaitos Origins:
  • Gibari and King Ladekahn have headed to Nashira to watch the skyfarers bring in today's catch. When they reach Nashira, however, they're shocked to find that Alfardian soldiers have captured the village and imprisoned the inhabitants. Ladekahn demands to know what is going on, and is laughed at by the soldiers.
    You'd Expect: He'd say something along the lines of 'I'm King Ladekahn, dumbass. What the hell are you doing on my island?'
    Instead: He throws a fit and orders them to leave Diadem immediately, prompting the soldiers to lock him and Gibari up.
  • Ladekahn also has a moment in Eternal Wings. After Alfard (again) lays siege to Diadem on flimsy claims, he's told that the Alfardian emissaries would like to make a ceasefire.
    You'd Expect: He'd realize that Alfard probably doesn't have Diadem's best interests in mind.
    Instead: He meets the Alfardians on the bridge to his castle, alone, and gets shot by Ayme. The only thing that keeps Ayme from finishing him off is Lyude's Heel–Face Turn.
• Battlefield 3: Deuteragonist Dimitri Mayakovsky and his Spetsnaz team have traced a known terrorist to Paris who has a stolen nuclear device and plans to detonate it and intend to do whatever is necessary to stop him.
  You'd Expect: That they'd warn the French authorities that terrorists are on their soil and have a nuclear weapon primed and to request their assistance in stopping the detonation.
  Instead: They don't say a word, and decide that they have no choice but to storm in guns a'blazin and waste precious time and effort having to murder any innocent French police officer who gets in their way.
  Result: Vladimir dies in the crossfire, the nuke goes off without a hitch taking over a million civies with it, Russia ends up in the middle of a major international shitstorm, and Dimitri ends up with life-threatening radiation poisoning for his trouble. An Epic Fail for his squad on virtually every front.
  • From the other side, Sgt. Henry Blackburn's Marine detachment under the leadership of Captain Cole are sent in to capture a Russian arms-dealer working with the terrorists who have taken over Iran. But when they get close to compound they find it's already being seized by Russian paratroopers who are being sent in to capture the dealer themselves.
    You'd Expect: Cole to wait and ask command to advise them on the situation or try to get in contact with the Russian forces to clarify things.
    Instead: He takes this as proof that the Russian Army is in league with the terrorists and are covering up their mess and orders his under-armed and outnumbered troops to attack them completely unprovoked.
    Result: It ends with nearly all of the Marines under Cole's command dead and as Montes points out, the assault probably triggered the biggest international incident since Pearl Harbor. All because he wanted a promotion so damn bad that he thought setting off World War III, without thinking of the possible repercussions for five seconds, was the best way to get it. And it's implied it would've worked if Blackburn hadn't done the smart thing and wasted him.
    • Or, hell, the whole framing device. To elaborate, Sgt. Blackburn is in custody and suspected of treason to which two CIA analysts have been tasked with investigating the matter. Throughout the entire interrogation Blackburn keeps warning them that Solomon is the mastermind behind a suspected terror plot and that he plans on attacking that very day with details about how he plans to do it.
      You'd Expect: That they'd go over every last nook and cranny as thoroughly as possible and advise their superiors to take precautions in case of a possible terror attack. Or look for evidence of a possible security leak or rogue agent.
      Instead: Simply because Solomon is a CIA informant, they believe that everything Blackburn says, without question, is a lie. Despite Blackburn having a witness in the form of Montes, they never ask for his testimony - they only bring him in long enough to ask one incredibly loaded question just to bury Blackburn further, instead of anything that would either confirm or contradict Blackburn's claims - and despite having video evidence of Solomon murdering Sergeant Miller in cold blood, they never so much as have him undergo a psych evaluation. Instead, one of the interrogators contributes nothing except saying "Ha ha fuck you, you're lying" every chance he gets and all but confesses to Black that the interrogation is a Kangaroo Court and that he's already guilty. Plus, they ignore both Cole blatantly giving the middle finger to Rules Of Engagement and every bit of evidence Black has in favor of simply blaming the Russians for everything. Because, you know, they're Russian. They can't possibly NOT be evil.
      Result: Solomon's plan almost succeeds and is only thwarted because Montes and Blackburn get sick of their bullshit and escape. And if multiplayer and the sequel are any indication, the US still decides to wage a completely pointless war that will cost millions of dollars and lives anyway.
      Even Worse: One of the details Blackburn gives to them about Solomon's attack is that he's using public transportation to move his nuke. Late into the interrogation, one of the interrogators receives word that Solomon has indeed arrived in the city. Right as it's winding down, the exact instant he claims they're "on top of things", he receives a call that a public train has gone missing, and he doesn't put two and two together from that. The CIA couldn't have been less effective at stopping Solomon's attack if they were actively trying to help him go through with it.
• Beyond: Two Souls: The (evil) American government has discovered a supernaturally empowered girl who has a literal guardian spirit devoted to protecting her at any cost. This spirit has telekinesis and can suffocate people as well as possess their bodies.
  You'd Expect: They keep a close eye on the girl and maintain a constant watch on her throughout her life, minimalizing any influence that she might see as threatening or oppressive. Above all, they don't expose her to traumatic situations and try to keep her state of mind sane and uncompromised.
  Instead: They make her their assassin and keep her from having any freedom and social contact. When the girl inevitably tries to escape their grasp, they send a small army's worth of cops and soldiers to detain her.
  Result: The girl rebels, and goes on to kill people. A lot of people.
  • Late in the game, Jodie is pressed into infiltrating a PLA-esque's top secret Underwater Base with her former CIA teammates, which include both her love interest Ryan and the team's token-Asian member Nick. Finding a submarine dry-dock and seeing no alternative to piloting the sub down and walking in through the front door, Jodie suggests Dressing as the Enemy to try and slip by unnoticed. Since Jodie's supernatural connection to Aiden is needed for the mission, she gets a pass, but she still needs some backup and since the sub is only a two seater, only one other member of the squad can go with her.
    You'd Expect: They would send Nick with her so as not to arouse suspicion; even if he isn't Chinese (or Kaziri, or whatever), he would be more likely to pass for one at a distance and thus, would stand out less. He could then scout ahead for the far-more conspicuous 20-something white girl.
    Instead: They send the obviously white Ryan with her for no adequate reason other than to create dramatic/romantic tension.
    Result: Jodie and Ryan are discovered almost immediately after exiting the sub, and are captured and tortured for information.
• BioShock: Mad Scientist Dr. Suchong is put in charge of developing a plasmid that will make Big Daddies protect Little Sisters whenever the Little Sisters are in harm's way.
  You'd Expect: That Suchong would not do anything to harm the Little Sisters, in the case that his research were successful.
  Instead: While complaining about the initial failures of his creation, he slaps a Little Sister that was trying to get his attention. It ends up revealing his work was, in fact, successful when he gets drilled to his desk by a suddenly-protective Big Daddy.
• BioShock Infinite: Upon arriving in Columbia, Booker finds a poster telling the citizens that they will recognize the False Shepherd by the "AD" brand on his hand. Booker just so happens to have an identical brand on his hand.
  You'd Expect: Booker to cover up his brand with a glove or something similar to avoid attracting attention.
  Instead: Booker disregards the sign and moves on.
  Result: The brand is noticed by the police, and they promptly try to execute him.
• There are instances in the BlazBlue series where you really have to question the intellect of the protagonists.
  • In the Desperation story of BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, Noel and Tsubaki have their little tiff due to Tsubaki being thoroughly mindraped by Terumi. Noel accidentally extracts a memory of Terumi from Tsubaki's mind afterwards and comes to the conclusion that he did something to her good friend.
    You'd Expect: Noel would at least fall back and get some reinforcements. She was there at the end of Calamity Trigger, and knows Terumi is bad news. Other characters have gone out of their way to advise her to give the bastard a wide berth - Makoto, her other good friend, explicitly asked her to try to stay away from him. Even if Noel and the help can't take Terumi down, they'd have an escape plan.
    Instead: She charges on in and fights Terumi alone. Just the way he wanted it.
    "I have arrived, reborn as Kusanagi. The destroyer of all living things. I am death..."
  • During Chapter 6 of BlazBlue: Chronophantasma, Kagura finishes his evaluation of Tsubaki and returns to Kokonoe to report what he knows (coupled with a tip that Hazama knows she's with him).
    You'd Expect: For them to invite Noel and Makoto in for the discussion, even if they had to wait. Not only is Tsubaki their closest friend, and someone they'd be willing to forsake orders to save, but Makoto, as a former Intelligence officer, could eavesdrop upon them with both of them being none the wiser.
    Instead: They start the meeting right away. Before it ends, Makoto barges in and demands an explanation as Kokonoe laments the fact that she was eavesdropping.
    You'd also expect: Them to have Makoto verify what she overheard and fill in the gaps as thoroughly as possible, even if she had to have Tager do so for her. An educated spy is an efficient spy, and Makoto has proven to be somewhat responsible.
    Instead: Kokonoe berates Makoto on the responsibilities of her role while Kagura blankly assures that everything will be alright. Then when Makoto's out of the room, Kokonoe has Tager try to restrain them both (never mind that Makoto would beat the shit out of Tager if he tried to make a move on Noel). If this is how you treat your allies, professor...
    Even worse: Kokonoe berates Kagura on not noticing Makoto's intent this whole time, knowing full well she would act to save Tsubaki anyway. This forces the two of them to plan around the girls in situ thanks to not sharing the information, which almost gets Makoto 86'd by Izanami acting through Tsubaki. Further still, Makoto does a thorough job warning Noel that Tsubaki would attempt to kill her, and none of the villains catch up to Noel in Story Mode before Kagura finds her. Do practice what you preach, Kokonoe, alright?
  • During the climax of Chronophantasma, Nu forcibly attempts to merge with Noel, bringing the latter into a mindscape with a mirror, the reflection of which has white hair compared to Noel's blonde.
    You'd Expect: Noel to recognize the white-haired girl as Nu and refuse to comply. The last time she got close to Nu, things went pear-shaped, and she should at least remember that much.
    Instead: She recognizes the reflection as herself, which once again goes along with what Relius was planning. Rachel tries to tell her to stop, but by then the damage was done.
    Result: Relius sends Nu back to Hazama with her newly shared permissions, whereupon she summons the Master Unit and things become two orders of magnitude worse for the heroes. Way to go, girlfriend.
  • In the closing act, Ragna has just finished incapacitating the aforementioned Nu and dragged her out of Take-Mikazuchi alongside Celica and Minerva. Ragna, out of his desire to save Nu, asks Celica to heal her.
    You'd Expect: Ragna to belay his request until he can get a binding array on Nu, considering she just tried to kill him moments before. Even if he has genuine feelings for Nu outside of pity over her predicament, some things just shouldn't be left to chance, and there's no guarantee she won't give him hug.exe once she's healthy again.
    Instead: They both go right ahead and heal her unbound. Izanami shows up, banishes Hakumen (who was trying to kill Nu despite Celica's pleas), sics Nine (formerly Phantom) on Jubei, and commands the beast to awaken. Cue hug.exe as predicted, Noel getting hurt, and Jin beaten to an inch of his life. Kokonoe was right when she said being naive would lead to someone's downfall.
  • The heroes aren't the only ones who can fuck things up. Back in one of the bad endings of Continuum Shift, Terumi was able to stay Hakumen's wrath by using Tsubaki as a human shield. Remember this for later. In Chronophantasma, he is dispatched to the Coliseum, currently holding a tournament over the bounty for Ragna the Bloodedge, to investigate an anomaly within the area. This is split into two parts, since he had enough time to do both.
    You'd First Expect: Terumi to check up on Tsubaki. Not only would he be able to use the opportunity to check up on his anti-Hakumen shield, but there are three people who want to save her from her Brainwashed and Crazy state, all of whom are some form of threat to him; eliminating one member of this group before they could put their plan into action could make their job of saving Tsubaki that much harder. Even if he was too late to stop them, he could have a backup plan ready to go.
    You'd Then Expect: That he focus on tracking the anomaly as a primary objective. Identifying what this entity is and what they're capable of would take priority in an actual fight if they are proven capable of obscuring the presence of more dangerous threats.
    Instead: You guessed it - neither of these thought proceses came into play.
    The Result: The instant Ragna is exposed, Terumi (still in Hazama's body) hunts him down and tortures him for shiggles; the anomaly (Celica Ayatsuki Mercury) returns to Ragna's side with Tager at her side, leaving Terumi crippled and in need of an immediate evac. In the long term, Makoto, Jin and Noel saved Tsubaki from her brainwashing, leaving Terumi without his anti-Hakumen shield and open to Time Killer. He can't pursue or punish these individuals immediately in Centralfiction because of his broken hourglass, something he could have salvaged if he took his little scheme a bit more seriously.
• Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: The Alchemy Guild... where to even begin? Journals from an anonymous member found throughout the game reveal how demons were summoned to Earth and how the Shardbinders were created. The Alchemy Guild researched how to summon demons, led by the anonymous writer of the journals, and discovered how to transmute magic crystals to do so. They successfully summoned a single demon, which proceeded to almost ruin the entire guild single-handedly, as well as kill many innocent lives before it was put down.
  You'd Expect: The Alchemy Guild to have realized that if one demon is capable of such pointless devastation, then summoning a whole army of demons is a really bad idea bordering on Too Dumb to Live, and immediately stopped their research.
  Instead: Too blinded by avarice and fearful of their wealthy patrons deserting spiritualism in favour of science amidst the Industrial Revolution, the Alchemy Guild went ahead with the experiment, gathering enough magic crystals to forcibly implant into the bodies of young people to sacrifice as part of a ritual to summon a whole army of demons to Earth, all for the purpose of frightening the world into continuing to give them financial support. The Church eventually managed to defeat the demonic invasion, but at the cost of countless innocent lives, and the alchemists responsible were ultimately caught and executed for their crimes, led by Gebel, the one Shardbinder to be subjected to the ritual and survive.
  Bonus Idiot Points: An internal Spanner in the Works who realized how greedy and selfish the Alchemy Guild had become put the most powerful Shardbinder and the crux of their "plans", Miriam, in a magic sleep for ten years, weakening the summoning by half... which was still powerful enough to devastate the world to the point that it still hasn't recovered ten years later. If the Alchemy Guild had succeeded in sacrificing Miriam, they would have brought about The End of the World as We Know It because money and power.
  But Wait, It Gets Worse: It is strongly suggested that the Alchemy Guild's actions are what led to Dominique losing her faith in God and deciding to acquire enough power to slay gods, becoming the main antagonist of the game. This makes the writer of the journals the overarching antagonist who is responsible for pretty much the entire story. Way to go, dumbasses!
• Borderlands 2:
  • The Vault Hunters have just stormed Control Core Angel to steal the Vault key from Handsome Jack. After a grueling fight they finally have the key and have deprived Jack of his means of powering it, namely his Siren daughter, Angel, who gave her life to stop her father. Suddenly, Jack appears and shoots Roland dead.
    You'd Expect: For the Vault Hunters (canonically there are six present in the room during this scene), all of whom are heavily-armed badasses with little reservations about killing people, to immediately pump Jack full of lead.
    Instead: The Vault Hunters do absolutely nothing at first. Lilith is the first to react...by charging at Jack, allowing him to slap a power-restraining collar on her and giving him a means to charge the Vault key once again. Then the Vault Hunters continue to do nothing while Jack monologues, before he takes Lilith as a human shield and tries to have her kill them, forcing her to teleport them back to Sanctuary without the key.
    Result: The attack on Control Core Angel was all for nothing.
• Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!: At the end of Jack's quest to take the Vault, Lilith shows up, phasewalking in.
  You'd Expect: For her to kill Jack where he stands.
  Instead: She smashes the Vault relic, scarring Jack, and escapes before finishing him, leaving a psychotic dictator hellbent on getting revenge on her and Roland.
• While the fairies of the Bravely Default series are shown to possess ages' worth of knowledge, Bravely Second reveals that they have no way of reliably countering someone with equal experience. The same goes to the people they 'help'.
  • Kaiser Oblivion confides in Janne and Nikolai about their memory issues and comes to the conclusion that the protagonists recall everything they experienced as well, making his plans an open book.
    You'd Expect: Him to drop a silent proxy to steal the Space-Time Compass from the party, preferably in a fashion that does not give away his intentions.
    Instead: He consents to having Geist and Revenant pick it up. While Rev does get the compass, a bloodsoaked priest and animate suit of armor are very conspicuous, leading Braev to bring a team to the Harena Seacaves to fence them in and have them arrested with his daughter's aid.
  • Following this, the party then baits Minette by claiming amongst a throng of cats that they will move it to Sagitta to protect it. You know, that village with the Wave-Motion Gun that previously blew Oblivion's shit up.
    You'd Expect: Kaiser Oblivion to see the obvious trap and send in a small group of his best soldiers to scout out the area and/or steal the MacGuffin.
    Instead: He charges in guns-a-blazing on the Skyhold, only to be shot at and chased away... right into Norzen's typhoon. The Empire is neutralized soon after, its officers arrested to the last.
  • In Chapter 6, the magical backlash of the Holy Pillar's disruption dispels Yoko's wards on Caldisla, re-exposing the region — and, more importantly, the Great Chasm — to the world. Anne finds the Great Chasm and discovers its connection to Lord Providence, allowing her to summon Ba'als anew without the Moon getting in the way.
    You'd Expect: Her to hold on to Turtle Dove until she has enough Ba'als to alpha strike Caldisla in the event Yew and the others survived the destruction of the Skyhold... or at least enough to keep them at bay.
    Instead: She sends it to Lontano Villa, where Egil detects it and reports back, allowing Yew and his lot to eliminate it. They eventually follow the Norende Ravine trail right back to her, kill her, and use the Great Chasm as an in-road to punching out Providence. Airy was the smarter sister, apparently.
• Brawl Stars: In the No Time to Explain trailer, Colt walks across the canyon, meeting a cactus named Spike waving at him along the way, armed with a cactus grenade.
  You'd Expect: That, knowing this strange sentient cactus is equipped with a deadly explosive, for Colt to immediately run off and everything's rosy.
  Or: For Colt to at least ask Spike what his true intentions are, knowing he isn't exactly as friendly as he seems to be. Even if Spike can't speak, it would be a better alternative.
  Instead: Without knowing what his true intentions could be, he, confusedly, waves back at him.
  As A Result: Spike ends up throwing his grenade at Colt, nearly killing him.
  • Another one occurs in the animated short "Barley's Last Call", where Poco is desperately trying to put out a fire. EMZ is nearby.
    You'd Expect: EMZ to help Poco by any means possible.
    Or: Seeing that she has a phone, for her to call the fire department to help.
    Instead: She just stands there taking selfies in front of the whole thing.
    As A Result: The fire spreads.
• Bug Fables: The Wasp King seems to be aware of Queen Vanessa and the fact her fire brooch could do with protecting the holders against his fire attack.
  You'd Expect: The Wasp King to kill Vanessa. Besides, if she wasn't at the castle during the time of Chapter 5, the bugs would've just encountered Ultimax and realize a bit too late that something's off. Or at least steal the brooch away from her so nothing could counter him. It's not like there wasn't any real room for objection
  Instead: He just tortures her at worst, meaning by the time the heroes are on the way to the Giant's Lair, Vanessa gives the brooch over to them, letting them take on the Wasp King.
• Bully:
  • Right after Jimmy is led by Gary into a trap against Russell and managed to win against him, Gary proclaims his motives and flees the scene.
    You'd Expect: For Jimmy and Petey to find Gary before he does anymore damage to Bullworth Academy and leave the cliques to their fates for now.
    Instead: Jimmy never once considers just searching for Gary despite Petey's constant suggestion of simply searching for Gary over having the approval of all the five cliques. Predictably, Gary somehow managed to overthrow Jimmy as the new ruler of the school and cause massive chaos on Bullworth Academy.
  • Once Jimmy managed to take pictures of Johnny's girlfriend Lola cheating on Gord and gives it to him, Johnny now has full proof of Lola's infidelity.
    You'd Expect: That he approaches Lola, directly confront her infidelity based on the pictures he obtained and if she didn't give any reasonable explanation, dump her.
    Instead: He apparently still thinks that he can win Lola back by knocking out not just Gord but anyone who even bats an eye at her such as Cornelius and Algie. This causes an unnecessary amount of tension and conflict in chapter 3 that could have been avoided if Johnny had some common sense.
• In Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, Sebastian Marsh has Jack at his mercy towards the end of the game. So what does he do?
  • You'd expect: He kills him.
  • Instead: He throws him into a brig build above a tunnel and where a chisel is lying in the middle of the room (which can actually be seen from outside the brig). Of course, Jack uses the chisel to break the tunnel's grate and escape the brig...
• In the Call of Duty series:
  • In Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the protagonists have just captured Lev Kravchenko, former dragon to previous Big Bad Dragovich, and take him to a compound to interrogate him.
    You'd Expect: Woods or Hudson, both of whom are present and know that Mason was brainwashed to be compelled to kill Kravchenko, to disarm Mason and take him to another room to regain his composure.
    Instead: They just stand there and let him watch, and do nothing when he outright cocks his gun and points it at Kravchenko.
    The Result: Mason either just barely manages to resist his brainwashing through sheer Heroic Willpower, or succumbs and murders Kravchenko before they can get any useful intel out of him. Though Hudson was an insider for Raul Menendez by that point and might have intentionally been banking on it, Woods has absolutely no excuse.
  • In Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, the SDF has attacked a SATO installation and stolen a prototype weapon just before UNSA Fleet Week.
    You'd Expect: Given the flagrant attack on their personnel, the UNSA not to put every ship out in the open on Fleet Week.
    Instead: They do just that.
    The Result: SDF forces hijack their anti-air guns and wipe out almost their entire fleet. Only two ships, Retribution and Tigris, survive the assault and are forced to single-handedly defend Earth from the SDF from that point forward.
  • At the end of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Bell discovers they are actually a member of Perseus who was captured and brainwashed by the Americans so they could help find Perseus and his stolen nuclear arsenal. Their handler Adler then demands to know where Perseus is hiding, and Bell gives an answer.
    You'd Expect: Adler to have some sort of contingency plan in case Bell, who has every reason to hate his guts at this point, lies to him. Even if they have no other leads on Perseus, he should still keep the possibility of a trap in mind.
    Instead: He puts his complete and unconditional faith in an individual who has every reason to hate his guts and want him dead.
    The Result: Bell has free reign to double-cross him and lead him into an ambush, getting him and nearly his entire team killed.
• Cave Story:
  • Played for Laughs: After the Player Character busts Kazuma Sakamoto out of the warehouse he was trapped in in Grasstown^note Aeon Genesis translation/Bushlands^note NICALiS translation, he and Professor Booster notice a motorcycle nearby that Kazuma deduces still works.
    You'd Expect: Kazuma would observe the motorcycle's controls before trying to drive it.
    Instead: He starts the ignition without observing the controls.
    The Result: Turns out Kazuma Didn't Think This Through; he and fellow passenger Professor Booster lose control of the motorcycle and crash-land near the teleporter to Mimiga Village, forcing the Player Character to walk back to the teleporter on foot. They survive, but the motorcycle is damaged beyond repair.
  • In the long distant past, a king became jealous of the popularity that a certain powerful wizard named Ballos had with his people, and decided to capture and torture him as punishment.
    You'd Expect: Ballos' king to have realised what a stupid "plan" this is. Besides the fact that going through with it would be blatant Disproportionate Retribution and would paint himself as a petty, selfish Sore Loser in the eyes of his people—thereby all but guaranteeing that Ballos' popularity with them will increase—there's no way torturing someone with vast magical powers will go well for him.
    Instead: Either Ballos' king didn't think of any of this, or was too blinded by jealousy to care. Either way, he went through with his "plan" and subjected Ballos to intense torture, breaking his mind and turning him from a sane Nice Guy to a raging Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds with no control over his own powers.
    The Result: This went about as well as you'd think it would; Ballos' magic ran wild, destroyed the kingdom and killed everybody within it, including the King himself. As a result, Ballos' older sister Jenka sealed him away within a floating island in the sky, because she couldn't bring herself to kill him.
    Even Worse: By doing this to Ballos, his king unwittingly sowed the seeds for almost every tragic event that happens over the course of the game. Ballos' never-ceasing anger takes physical manifestation in the form of the red flowers, and when he was forced to create the Demon Crown by his niece Misery, she was cursed to be the slave of whomever wears it while never being able to wear it herself, paving the way for the Doctor to find the Crown and attempt to use its powers to Take Over the World.
• Child of Light:
  • Aurora wakes up in the strange Magical Land of Lemuria, that has been conquered and had its light stolen by Umbra, Queen of the Night, her daughters and their army, and is asked to restore the light. Throughout the whole of Lemuria, Aurora can find wishes hanging from bushes that each restore a small amount of HP/MP. These bushes grow back their wishes after a short period of time. They can even be found mid-battle (but take much longer to grow wishes back). In short, these wish bushes are helpful to anyone trying to stand up to the Queen of the Night's reign.
    You'd Expect: Umbra and co. to find as many wish bushes as possible, uproot and burn them.
    Instead: They do nothing about the wish bushes. You can see where this is going.
  • Norah joins Aurora's party with the promise that a Magic Mirror up in the sky will transport them back home to Aurora's dying father. When they eventually reach the magic mirror, it is revealed that it was tampered with to transport them to a prison tower. Worse, Norah had been lying to Aurora the entire time and was luring her into a trap so she and her tyrannical mother can murder her, and her friendly, caring demeanour gives way to a manipulative, cruel and narcissistic sociopath who savours emotionally breaking her little stepsister (she even lied about her name; she confirms her real name as Nox). She was able to hide her real nature extremely well with only a few subtle hints of her eventual betrayal, to the extent that this not only comes as a shock to Aurora, but can also be a legitimate shock to the player. What she does next, however, is not nearly so well-executed. After she and her mother fail to murder Aurora due to her crown containing magical protection, albeit knocking her unconscious and therefore are able to order Óengus to lock her up in the tower until she starves to death, Nox succeeds in capturing all of Aurora's friends and imprisoning them in cages in a separate cell for starvation, if only to spread fear to the masses who might be thinking of opposing her and her mother's rule of Lemuria.
    You'd Expect: Nox would lock the door and/or place a guard in front of it, especially since (1) the lever mechanism that unlocks the cages is right there in the room in plain view, out of the prisoners' reach but easily accessed by anybody else who enters, (2) locked doors are a thing in Child of Light, and they can never be unlocked at any point as there are no keys to be found in the game, and (3) there are guards elsewhere in the prison tower.
    Instead: Nox decides that the cages are sufficient and leaves the door to the cell unlocked, with no guard.
    As A Result: Aurora, accompanied by Óengus (who had only pledged to serve Umbra and her daughters in exchange for the lives of his comrades), are later able to walk in with little difficulty and set them all free. Granted, Nox displays narcissism after revealing her real nature, boasting about her acquiring royalty status through her mother's marriage to Aurora's father and later calling Aurora's friends "insects", and narcissists and sociopaths are known for being impulsive and not thinking things through, but she's given Aurora and co. a very good incentive to hunt her down and make her pay for what she's done to them (and later Genovefa by being heavily implied to be responsible for the Ogre that eats the rest of her kind, leaving Gen the sole survivor) with her life. Congratulations, moron.
    • In the Cynbel Sea, it is shown that Nox has the power to fly without wings and turn into a giant sea serpent at will.
      You'd Expect: She would have turned into her One-Winged Angel form earlier—preferably when she and her mother first heard about Aurora's soul living on in Lemuria after her mother killed her physical body in Austria—and ambushed Aurora and co. while they were at much lower levels. If she has the power of wingless flight, then lack of water should not be a problem. That way, she could kill her little stepsister without the latter ever finding out about her true identity.
      Instead: Being a sadistic sociopath (and because fighting a giant serpentine monster 20+ levels higher than you isn't much fun from a gameplay perspective), she approaches Aurora in her human form and spins a relatively complicated (and much more despicable) manipulation plot that ends up being far more effective at Breaking the Cutie than actually killing her, as it turns out Aurora's crown is empowered with magical protection against the Queen of the Night's One-Hit Kill magic.
      As A Result: Aurora comes to hate Nox for her psychological abuse, and by the time the two fight to the death Aurora and her friends have become much stronger and can slay her.
• Chrono Trigger:
  • Ozzie provides much hilarity from his own stupidity, but special mention has to go to his pit-traps. While the heroes are infiltrating the Fiendlord's Keep, Ozzie tries to stop the heroes reaching his Lord Magus by setting multiple traps that send them falling into a cell. The cell in question contains fake Save Points that can't attack and give high EXP. and money, four treasure chests with useful items, and the cell also contains a hidden Magic Capsule. In addition, one of the Save Points is actually a teleport to escape.
    You'd Expect: Ozzie would have checked earlier that the cell in question doesn't contain any free-EXP./money "enemies" or items to help the very heroes he's trying to stop, and that there's no way to escape so easily.
    Instead: He didn't think of any of these. He might as well be handing out free EXP., money and items to his enemies like candy.
    You'd Then Expect: Ozzie to realise that his pit-traps are ineffective and think of a different plan to dispatch the heroes.
    Instead: He continues using pit-traps to send the heroes falling into the same cell over and over again, desperately hoping that things will turn out differently this time, and is taken completely by surprise when he inevitably exhausts all his resources. Since the fake Save Points respawn each time, he's handing out more free EXP. and money to his enemies like candy.
  • Queen Zeal succeeds in harvesting enough power from Lavos to become The Ageless, and turns the Ocean Palace into the Black Omen, the Brutal Bonus Level that is nonetheless necessary if one desires closure on what happened in the Kingdom of Zeal. Lavos is still predetermined to emerge and reduce the Earth to ruin in 1999 A.D., and the Black Omen itself is infused with Lavos' power.
    You'd Expect: Queen Zeal would seal the entrance to the Black Omen during all accessible time periods while Lavos is still slumbering, so that no Big Damn Heroes can possibly interfere. She's fully confident that Lavos is completely undefeatable, but it would nonetheless be wise to take that one simple extra precaution.
    Futhermore, You'd Expect: She would unseal the entrance after Lavos has laid waste to the world, so that if any Big Damn Heroes arrive, she could taunt them at the end with, "You've suffered through this Brutal Bonus Level... All for Nothing".
    Instead: She does the complete opposite of that, leaving the entrance unsealed during Lavos' slumber and sealing it after Lavos awakens and destroys the Earth, taunting the heroes at the very beginning if they do try to take on the Black Omen after the Apocalypse.
    Result: Those Big Damn Heroes arrive to interfere, and with enough skill can dispatch both the deranged Queen Zeal and Lavos, saving their planet's future. Chuggaaconroy makes fun of this during his Let's Play of Chrono Trigger:
    Chugga: It's a known fact that it takes bad guys exactly 14,300 years to think of the brilliant plan of locking their doors so the heroes can't get to them.
• Clock Tower 3 features a man intending to sacrifice his granddaughter on her fifteenth birthday. He's doing this in order to become an immortal creature of evil.
  You'd Expect: The grandfather would treat his granddaughter with love, kindness and respect, not only so that she'll live long enough to see her fifteenth birthday, but that she'll implicitly trust him when the time comes. Even if he has to complete a ritual to sacrifice her, all he has to offer is a big birthday party for his beloved granddaughter to lure her into a trap.
  Instead: He constantly puts her in danger against other evil forces, which eventually awakens her latent powers that help her fight off the evil. By the time she makes it to her grandfather, she promptly tells him off and kicks his ass with her newly awakened powers.
• Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars: The forces of GDI have managed to finally lay siege to Temple Prime, HQ for the Brotherhood of Nod and assumed location of the Nod mastermind/Messianic figure, Kane. Nod has the nasty habit of outsmarting GDI at every turn; oftentimes twisting GDI's actions against the organization. GDI's leading general advises that GDI forces attempt to hold the siege until Nod forces surrender. GDI's Director demands that they use GDI's Ion Cannon. The general notes that Nod was storing weaponized Green Rocks with enormous explosive potential in the facility, and suggests they consult their Green Rock Expert. Turns out, he's been kidnapped by Nod.
  You'd Expect: The director to realize that these events might be related, and the risk of falling into yet another scenario where Nod tricks GDI into doing something terrible; therefore erring on the side of caution with the Death Ray.
  Instead: The director orders the Ion Cannon be used, and Nod's Green Rock weapon explodes, causing a chain reaction with other Green Rocks in the area. This leads to a rather large explosion that more or less erases the entire Balkan Peninsula from existence; the director notes that the area was primarily Nod-controlled anyway. It's also worth noting that the Director (Redmond Boyle, played magnificently sleazily by Billy Dee Williams) is implied to be an idiot, and later in the game, shows himself to be a fanatic of the degree of "So long as Nod is destroyed, do whatever action is necessary, even if it causes huge casualties on our side."
• In Comix Zone, Sketch Turner has made it to the final panel where General Alissa Cyan comes in to prevent the activation of a nuke.
  You'd Expect: That she has Sketch watch her back while she works, even if Mortus isn't capable of re-entering the comic, he could still draw in enemies to attack her and Sketch.
  Instead: She tells Sketch to stay put until she disarms the nuke.
  As a result: Mortus, swoops in to swipe Alissa from the controls and throw her in a tube filling with liquid in an attempt to drown her. Also as a result, in order to get the best ending Sketch will have to defeat Mortus before she drowns.
• Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time: Cortex has used Kupuna-Wa to open a rift back to 1996, where his past counterpart self is about to create Crash Bandicoot. Cortex intends to use this chance to wipe Crash from existence.
  You'd Expect: This to be simple: Cortex to murder past Crash before he goes into the Cortex Vortex and maybe go after past Coco while he's at it.
  Instead: Cortex first tries to convince his own past counterpart not to send Crash into the Cortex Vortex, but the past Cortex proves impossible to reason with. He then knocks past Cortex out and then decides to kill present Crash defeating the purpose of his time traveling.
  The Result: Cortex loses yet another fight with Crash, gets banished to the end of the universe, and to add insult to injury, causes Crash to be created in the first place.
• Crash Tag Team Racing:
  • The game has all sorts of Die-O-Rama cut scenes that take The Many Deaths of You to new heights. One of these cut scenes starts out with Crash putting a coin into a vending machine.
    You'd Expect: For him to push one of the buttons to pick a drink. He's dimwitted, but he's not stupid enough to be unaware of how vending machines work.
    Instead: He forgets that part and just stands there waiting for a drink. Nothing happens.
    The Result: He grows impatient and climbs on the machine trying to get it to dispense the drink, only for him to accidentally rock it and have it fall down and smash him.
  • Later in the game, after Crash retrieves the last Power Gem from Tomb Town, everyone regroups and Coco reveals to everyone a major clue: whoever the gem thief is has a connection to Wumpa Whip, as she and Pasadena (in a scrapped cutscene) have found Wumpa Whip at every crime scene around the park.
    You'd Expect: For everyone to ask around if anyone has seen anyone or anything suspicious.
    Or: Ask Willie Wumpa Cheeks directly if he knows anything about the Wumpa Whip, because after all, he's a giant Wumpa fruit that dispenses Wumpa Whip.
    Instead: Everyone jumps to conclusions and blames Crash for the thefts, since he was drinking some Wumpa Whip at the time.
    Now You'd Expect: For Coco, who says herself that she has an IQ of 164, to defend Crash, saying that there's no way he could be the thief, as a) the thefts started long before they even set foot in the park and b) Crash was helping Von Clutch recover the gems in the first place.
    Instead: Coco grabs hold of the Idiot Ball and cries out, "Oh, Crash! How could you?!"
    The Result: Willie Wumpa Cheeks snaps, calling the group out on their stupidity and confesses that he is the culprit, before fleeing to the final world, Astro Land, with Von Clutch's Black Power Gem in tow.
• Crysis 2:
  • New York has been overrun by the alien Ceph. Military command has already, by this point, hired and discarded mercenary company CELL to try containing not only the alien invasion but the plague they're spreading at the same time. When this fails (spectacularly), military command sends in Marine companies to A) contain the invasion and B) arrest the CELL operatives who have not just failed in their duty, but are completely fucking insane.
    You'd Expect: the higher-ups to let the Marines go about doing their jobs. Perhaps even send in regular soldiers to handle rounding up CELL and let Marines get on with dealing with the Ceph. The times you see the Marines in action, they seem to hold their own fairly well, if with heavy casualties. Reinforce them and let things continue that way, or, hell, investigate these reports of a man in super-armor kicking alien ass five ways till Sunday.
    Instead: They decide that extra measures are needed. Well, can't blame them for that. But they decide to strike against the Ceph by bombing out the upriver dam and flooding the city. Now, these aliens have been nicknamed the Ceph. As in, cephalopods. As in, creatures that live in water. Nearly every scientist talked to in the game notes how it's obvious that they are, at least, amphibious in origin, and that they seem to be at home in the water. So, not only are the higher-ups endangering the forces already in the city, they are potentially providing the aliens with an environment in which they will have an easy upper hand.
  • Later, Ceph lithoship rises out of Central Park and prepares to spread the virus over the entire city, potentially much, much farther. Now, the last time a lithoship reared its head, military command launched a nuke at it. The lithoship then proceeded to not only be completely unharmed, but actually absorbed the power from the blast to boost its processes.
    You'd Expect: The higher-ups will have learned from their past mistakes and look for alternatives, seeing as the last time they nuked one of these things it went south rather spectacularly.
    Instead: They decide to throw a nuke at the damn thing anyways. Fortunately, Alcatraz sabotages it before they can get the launch in the air.
• In Crysis 3, CELL discovers that the Alpha Ceph is both the central hive mind of the Ceph colonization on Earth and a massive source of energy which also happens to be the means of controlling the other Ceph - literally, the energy it releases is the same signal that controls the Ceph.
  You'd Expect: That CELL would realize that using the Alpha Ceph as an energy source isn't worth risking the destruction of all humanity if it gets loose.
  Instead: CELL uses the Alpha Ceph as a power source, interlinking all of Earth's power grids to the alien. And as a result, when the Alpha breaks loose, another Ceph war erupts. Prophet himself is astonished by their flagrant stupidity.
• Cuphead: Cuphead and his brother Mugman are shooting dice at the Devil's Casino. To their surprise, they make an impressive winning streak that draws the attention of the Devil himself. The Devil makes one more bet with the two heroes: "Win one more roll, then all the loot in my casino is yours! But if you lose, I'll have your souls! Deal?" Cuphead is excited to take the bet, but Mugman begs him not to do it.
  You'd Expect: For Cuphead to stop and think for a minute while taking his brother's warning into account. And then maybe decide that maybe it's better for them to quit while they're ahead. Because after all, making any kind of bet with TEH DEVIL is never a good idea!
  Instead: Cuphead gets greedy and impulsively makes the gamble. They lose after it comes up a Snake-Eyes, meaning that now The Devil owns both their souls. The two beg the Prince of Darkness not to take their souls and to let them repay their debt in another way.
  The Result: Lucky for them, there is another way!: "I have here a list of my runaway debtors. Collect their souls for me, and I just might pardon you two mugs." So thanks to Cuphead's impulsiveness, he and Mugman are now sent to basically assassinate everyone who owes their souls to The Devil. And if they fail, they have to forfeit their souls to him for eternity. So what did we learn, kids?: Don't Deal with the Devil.
• In the original Dawn of War campaign, the protagonist has battled his way through aliens and heretics alike to keep the forces of darkness from acquiring a powerful artifact. After most of them are crushed, he stands victorious with the MacGuffin in his hand, ready to destroy it. He also stands staring down the barrels of a lot of semi-friendly alien troops and one of their farseers who begs him not to destroy it. He is understandably reluctant, given that its destruction has been his objective for some time now.
  You'd Expect: The farseer's next words would be, "destroying it will release the powerful demon sealed inside, you unbelievable dumbass" which would be helpful, fulfill her agenda on the planet, ensure that the vast majority of her troops won't have died in vain, avoid releasing a Greater Demon and still fill her contractual quota of insulting the Puny Earthlings. If he ignores her, she can have the satisfaction of saying "I told you so", should she live long enough.
  Instead: The equally wordy but far less useful, "you know not what you do! We cannot allow this..." followed by her ordering her troops to shoot him. The artifact is broken in the ensuing firefight, and Hilarity Ensues.
  And the icing on the cake is: This is far from the first time the Eldar have chosen to insult humans rather than explain why what they're doing is a bad idea.
• DC Universe Online: At the conclusion of the Villains' version of the alert "Titans Targeted," Nightwing, Red Robin, and Robin arrive to see Deathstroke escaping with the captured Cyborg while warning the "new recruits" to tell their friends The Fearsome Five not to get in his business again.
  You'd Expect: Nightwing to at least question them in regards to what Deathstroke said about their association with The Fearsome Five.
  Instead: He ignores it and has them be a part of the effort to rescue the captured Titans. This results in not just H.I.V.E. Master's defeat, but him and Red Robin being captured along with the other Titans, being left to die in the collapsing mountain base.
  The Result: Calculator not only gaining control of H.I.V.E. but the data of Titans Tower from the villains as well. Way to go, Boy Blunder.
• Dead Island: Jin kicks up a stink about helping those in a prison, despite warnings how dangerous it is.
  You'd Expect: She'd listen.
  Instead: She threatens the other survivors, causing distrust between them, ends up getting raped, and completely snaps to the point where her attack on Ryder White is taken as Driven to Suicide.
• Dead Rising:
  • In the very beginning, Frank West confronts a number of survivors in the mall. One of them is an old lady who's looking for her lost dog. A few moments later, it finally shows up - on the other side of the barricaded doors, barking, clearly zombified.
    You'd Expect: The lady to forget about it and keep back. The dog had been affected!
    Instead: The lady breaks through, throws open the barricade and runs into the zombie hoard to grab her dog. The old lady is murdered and the zombies break in, killing most of the other survivors.
  • After being defeated by Frank, Isabela is told to bring Carlito in for interrogation.
    You'd Expect: That he would refuse the request or come in calmly, having his plan already in motion.
    Instead: He shoots her in anger, leaving her with an obvious wound when she next sees Frank. She stops working for Carlito after this. Way to go, Carlito.
  • Before that, Frank meets her again in the supermarket after having saved her from Steven Chapman, a psychopath, and asks her to cooperate with him.
    You'd Expect: Isabela would gladly accept this since that they first met in the entrance of Willamette Mall, and he saved her life.
    Instead: She started to yell about how it's his fault that the hometown she and Carlito lived was destroyed by the zombies. Frank doesn't even call out or ask her what the hell is she talking about, so this is a double dumb moment.
  • At the Hunting Shack; a survivor named James Ramsey is trying to convince Cletus to share his stockpile of guns. Cletus is rightfully paranoid about the situation and distrustful about sharing guns with complete strangers. Cletus fires a warning shot at the ceiling and both him and Frank tell James to walk away.
    You'd Expect: James would immediately understand that Cletus is not messing around and he will leave the store with Frank to find other weapons.
    Instead: He calls Cletus' bluff by silently walking towards him, surprisingly, Cletus shoots him square in the chest and sends him flying out of the store. If a violent drunk is threatening you at gunpoint, the last thing you want to do is challenge them or call their bluff.
  • While trying to turn off the space rider machine, Frank encounters Adam the Clown and ends up in a fight with him when the latter attacks him for trying to turn off the roller coaster. Adam explains that the machine keeps the zombies away and if Frank turns it off then the zombies will return.
    You'd expect: Frank would notice the lack of zombies around and immediately comply to Adam's demands. If Frank did have to fight Adam then he would immediately turn the roller coaster back on again so the zombies stay away
    Instead: Frank is too shocked to speak and Adam takes his silence as a rejection of his demands. After defeating Adam and rescuing Greg, he leaves it off and the zombies flood the area again.
• Dead Rising 2: After surviving the bombing at the arena, Chuck learns that he has been framed for the outbreak on the news.
  You'd Expect: Chuck would take some precautions with hiding his identity; while Chuck knows that he isn't responsible for the outbreak, the other survivors won't and they will be slow to trust him.
  Instead: Chuck doesn't take any precautions at all and when people confront him, all he says is "It wasn't me". He instigates a fight with Carl Scliff when he writes his own name on a clipboard instead of a pseudonym, which alerts Carl to his identity as the alleged terrorist.
• Dead Space 3: Carver and Isaac confront Danik at the Machine who demands they give him the Codex or he'll kill Ellie.
  You'd Expect: Carver would understand that there's much more at stake than just Ellie's life and agree with Isaac's refusal. Especially when Ellie herself is telling them not to give in and Carver had spent the entire game harshly telling Isaac that Ellie didn't matter, only the mission did.
  Or At Least: Use Stasis to immobilize Danik, then subsequently blow his brains out. The only ones on the platform were Isaac, Carver, Ellie, and Danik.
  Instead: Carver gives Danik the Codex so Isaac can have a second chance with Ellie.
  The Result: Danik shuts down the Machine, which wakes the Moon, which in turns wakes its brothers. The Moons home in on Earth and eat humanity. El Fin.
• Late in Deus Ex, an assassin somehow breaks into Morgan Everett's home and murders a mechanic so he can disguise himself as his victim and plant a bomb on Jock's helicopter.
  You'd Expect: For him to hide the real mechanic's dead body somewhere out of the way.
  Instead: He leaves the corpse in plain sight, and JC only has to tilt his head slightly to the right to see it and realize something's wrong. At this point, any player with average to above-average deductive reasoning skills will either kill him on the spot or question Everett on the matter, who confirms that he's a spy and orders him killed. Either option leads to Jock defusing the bomb and surviving the assassination attempt.
• Devil May Cry:
  • At the start, Trish breaks into Dante's joint, beats the crap out of him, impales him with a sword, electrocutes him with lightning then chucks a 200+kg motorbike at him to crush him.
    You'd Expect: After what she did to him, and noticing that the lightning came out of her bare-hands, therefore proving she's not a normal human, you'd expect Dante to instantly recognize Trish as a villain and kill her immediately.
    Instead: Dante is gullible enough to believe Trish's tall tales and lets her lead him to the evil island where his enemy awaits, and are all eager to kick his ass. Indeed.
    In Addition: She also does this again late in the game when she plays damsel-in-distress to lure Dante into a boss-fight, then attacks him in the process, although it's Nightmare doing most of the attacking.
  • Even Trish is no better on the above moments. She is given an order by Mundus to eliminate Dante after the Brainwashed and Crazy Vergil failed. She agrees to it.
    You'd Expect: That Trish would use one of Mundus' marionettes to make it look like to Dante that some imposter of her has taken her captive and proceed to attack him with Nightmare. That way, Dante wouldn't have a reason to hate Trish and having someone to fight alongside with while she maintains her cover. As for her mission, she would have to weaken him first before allowing Nightmare to finish him off.
    Instead: She tells Dante that she is working for Mundus, makes herself out to be a monster, and attacks him alongside Nightmare. Despite this, he comes to her rescue when she is about to be crushed by some debris. She asks him why, and he replies that she looks like his mother and demands that she get out of his sight from then on.
    You'd Then Expect: Trish to now realize that she has damaged him emotionally and contemplate on what she has done before approaching him some time later, hopefully giving him a chance to cool, down and apologize to him for her betrayal.
    Instead: She tries to approach him, prompting Dante to threaten her and declare her as nothing more than a demon wearing his mother's face.
    Even Worse: When he gets to Mundus' throne, Dante sees Trish being held captive, and without a defensive move, he gets immobilized by his attacks. Trish manages to get out of being captured and dies by taking her former master's killing blow. He even regrets the choice of leaving her behind upon her death. "My mother risked her life for me, and now you too. I should have saved you. I should have been the one to fill your dark soul with LIIIIIIGHT!!"
• In the original Diablo, the Lone Wanderer, upon defeating the title Lord of Terror, sees him revert back to a regular man with a weird-looking stone in his head, a stone that is quite obviously a soulstone of sorts for the thing he's just taken out.
  You'd Expect: The Lone Wanderer would put two and two together and destroy the stone so Diablo cannot rise in this world again.
  Instead: The Lone Wanderer decides to jam the damned thing into his own head in an attempt to contain Diablo's evil within his own body. This leads to him being taken over by Diablo by the time the second game rolls around, and things just get worse from there.
  • Diablo IV: After Elias, The Fallen Horadrim is finally defeated, Lorath gives into frustration over being repeatedly too late to stop Lilith.
    You'd Expect: Lorath would inquireThe Wanderer about the details of Rathma's prophecy, who happens to know about The Cathedral's planned assault on Caldeum, where Lilith was prophesized to confront Inarius.
    Instead: Immediately after the battle, he sets off to make a deal with the Tree Of Whispers for knowledge.
    As A Result: Lorath condemns himself to an eventual Fate Worse than Death, for information which the player already knew, and in the end, he isn't any less late to the massacre about to happen in the city.
• In the Japan only Digimon game, D-1 Tamers, Millenniummon is back as Moon-Millenniumon, and the only person who can take him down again is Ryo Akiyama. This is a cause for alarm, naturally. The only person who doesn't have a clue is Ryo himself, and Ken.
  You'd Expect The Chosen Children/Digidestined to give Ryo the run-down of the situation from the start so he can train to defeat Moon-Millenniumon. This guy has taken down Millenniummon before, and if he knew, he'd train even harder.
  Instead They set up a tournament and outright manipulate Ryo so he can become stronger, and prepared to take down Moon-Millenniumon. And they only tell him the truth at the last minute, before the final practice dungeon. Nevermind that Ryo had to sacrifice a Digimon earlier on in the Digimon Graveyard. Though Ryo did indeed defeat Moon-Millenniumon, and even though the Chosen Children did apologise for deceiving him, Ryo goes into a Heroic BSoD as a result that lasts straight into the next game, and it's probably the reason why he went to the Digimon Tamers universe instead of back to his home universe. What the hell, Digidestined?
• In Dino Crisis, Rick and Regina's path to the port on floor B3 is blocked by a security system. While they figure out what to do, they hear a person on the radio shouting that they have a key to the port, but they have a lizard on their tail. Regina goes to the elevator shaft to intercept and is met with the T. Rex who emerges from the elevator. It winds up chomping on a generator when it tries to eat Regina, getting electrocuted and knocking itself unconscious.
  You'd Expect: Regina killing the T. Rex or at least wound it so it would stop chasing her.
  Instead: She leaves it alone. To no one's surprise, it shows up again at the end of the game.
• Dishonored:
  • Slackjaw has been trying to break into a safe containing a lot of valuables. To this end he offers a deal to Corvo, who's on his way to assassinate the Pendleton brothers: If Corvo can get the safe's code from its owner, Slackjaw will deal with the Pendletons for him. If he decided to take the deal, Corvo will visit Slackjaw at his base to tell him the code.
    You'd Expect: That upon getting the code, Slackjaw would send one of his people to check if Corvo had used the code to rob the vault himself. Remember, Slackjaw knows next to nothing about this masked individual, and certainly doesn't know if he'll employ Loophole Abuse or not.
    You'd Then Expect: That if Corvo has done the above, Slackjaw would either get in contact with the guy and request payment of the safe's valuables (i.e. the reason he made the deal in the first place) before he goes through with his part of the bargain, or simply not risk his manpower for a man who effectively screwed him over.
    Instead: Even if Corvo robs the safe himself, thereby depriving Slackjaw of his intended profit, Slackjaw will still get rid of the Pendletons for him.
  • The Lord Regent of Dunwall has done a few very unethical things in the past: not only did he frame Corvo for the assassination of the Empress, he was also responsible for the rat plague that's presently causing havok across the island.
    You'd Expect: The Lord Regent to try getting rid of any evidence that connects him to the above.
    Instead: He records a confession of his crimes. As a result, Corvo has the opportunity to get rid of him for good by broadcasting the confession to the whole of Dunwall.
• Divinity: Original Sin II: Isbeil has captured the party with one attack.
  You'd Expect: Isbeil knows the party is made up of highly dangerous adventurers who slaughtered many monsters and bosses. Her next action should be killing them on the spot.
  Instead: Isbeil decides to torture the party instead. If the party is made of undead, this actually heals them.
  Result: The party defeats Isbeil since they were never restrained during their captivity, they always have their gear on and they were never drained of their Source.
• Doki Doki Blue Skies:
  • In Yuri's route, MC visits Yuri in a graveyard, where she has flower petals near her shoe and talks about what her parents did and were in the past.
    You'd Expect: MC to ask if someone close to Yuri died.
    Instead: He doesn't put two and two together until he first catches Yuri cutting herself.
    Result: Yuri has significantly less time to be willing to get help with her grief.
  • On Valentine's Day in Natsuki's route, Sayori barges into her best friend MC's house while Natsuki is gone, despite the day being meant to be special for MC and Natsuki.
    You'd Expect: MC to gently tell Sayori off and say she can visit tomorrow.
    Instead: He can't bring himself to do anything about it.
    Result: Natsuki finds them and feels cheated out of her quality time with her boyfriend.
• Doki Doki Literature Club!: The main character has just found out that Sayori suffers from depression on the day right before the festival, and has either confessed his love to her or told her that she was his dearest friend. On Monday morning, the main character notices that Sayori isn't awake, despite the fact that she has always walked to school with him. This can be quite a red flag right there.
  You'd Expect: The main character to head to her house and see why she isn't awake and responding.
  Instead: The main character heads straight to school and sees Monika in the classroom. He even calls Sayori a "dummy" for sleeping in too much as well. Only after some ominous hinting from Monika and and a suicide note in the form of a poem, the main character decides to rush to Sayori's house to see what's wrong.
  Result: Sayori succeeds in killing herself because of Monika, and even worse, during a later scene with Monika, she says that Sayori was struggling (or her survival instincts were kicking in) and had second thoughts about killing herself (she hung herself, but there's blood on her hands, indicating that she tried to free herself), meaning that if the player decided to go there much earlier, he could've tried to save her himself.
• Doom Eternal:
  • The Doom Slayer has managed to completely halt the demonic invasion of Earth by killing all of the Hell Priests and the Big Bad, the Khan Makyr is forced to make a desperate move, revive the Icon of Sin.
    You'd Expect: For her to revive the thing somewhere on a secluded part of Earth, where she's explicitly stated to be unable to be harmed.
    Instead: She attempts to revive it in her home dimension, which was cut off from Hell to boot.
    Result: The Doom Slayer comes in and stops the ritual prematurely, causing the Icon of Sin to go off on its own, The Khan Makyr's home is promptly invaded by Hell and she eventually gets killed by the Doom Slayer.
    Even Worse: The Icon of Sin is a reality destroying entity that consumes everything by simply existing. Had it not somehow escaped to Earth, her home would've been consumed by Hell fairly quickly.
• Dragalia Lost: In "Blessed Bloodline", Tobias is given a duty to protect a descendant of Ilia ^{spoiler note}Actually Meene's descendant by the name of Nino. After seeking help from Father Grennie almost results in getting them killed, the two are brought to Peng Lai by Ryszarda and Raphael who set up an inn that they tell them to stay at when they are finished eating.
  You'd Expect: The two of them would go to the inn right away. There is too many people after Nino, and it is easy to get lost in a crowd.
  Instead: Tobias insists on waiting for the pyroblossoms before going so that Nino can see them.
  The Result: The two of them get separated in the crowd, resulting in Nino getting captured by an assassin who brings her to Father Grennie.
• Dragon Quest II:
  • Hargon, the High Priest, is trying to destroy the world and buying time to summon the God of Destruction Malroth. Hargon's castle, the Hall of Hargon, is atop the Rendarak plateau, surrounded by mountains on all sides. There is only one way in and that's by using a specific item, the False Idol, as a key. That item is being held by Hargon's minions.
    You'd Expect: For him to order his minions to destroy the only key that grants access to the plateau. It is impossible to get there any other way!
    Instead: The item is found and it's guardians defeated. The Cave of Rendarak is opened and the heroes make their way to the final area of the game.
  • Hargon is trying to summon Malroth in order to destroy the world. It's implied that it is only a matter of time before he succeeds.
    You'd Expect: That Hargon would maintain the status quo. Nobody is currently gunning for him so time is on his side.
    Instead: Hargon has his minions attack Moonbrooke, one of the superpowers of the continent, for no adequately explained reason and allow a soldier to escape! This soldier makes it to Midenhall, alerting the King and Prince, which kicks off the whole game.
    Or: If Moonbrooke is just that important that it needs to be destroyed, stage simultaneous attacks of Cannock and Midenhall since they are the other two superpowers on the continent.
• Dragon Quest VIII:
  • Marcello has managed to fight off possession by Rhapthorne, the Big Bad of the game, who's spirit is housed in the Godbird Sceptre. Said item has immeasurable power thanks to the being within, which very much appeals to him, ambitious as he is. However... said being has managed to take over every other being it has come across.
    You'd Expect: That Marcello would lock it away for now, and immediately dispatch men to Trodain to learn how to properly seal its power. At that point, he could use it only when absolutely necessary.
    Instead: He decides to keep it with him at all times, confident he'll be able to resist possession indefinitely.(Oh, and disregarding trivial things like sleep) In the end, simply being confronted is enough for him to be influenced and his defeat allows him to be taken over completely.
• Dragon Quest IX:
  • Serena and Corvus have been hidden away from the Gittish Empire while her father gives her a potion that he claims will restore Corvus's injuries, but actually puts him to sleep. A few minutes later, it's revealed he sold out their town so the Empire's soldiers would take its guardian in exchange for leaving Wormwood Creak alone and Serena giftwrapped Corvus for them. Serena is understandably pissed off at her father for a move like that and tries to tell Corvus the truth.
    You'd Expect: Serena to fully explain to Corvus that her father used her to drug him and apologize.
    Instead: She pleads for him to wake up, which, as anyone can tell you, is not a good idea since it takes time for the victim to fully wake up from their drugged state.
    The Result: The Gittish Soldiers thank Serena's father and take Corvus away, then kill him after he's served his purpose and mortally wound Serena.
    Even Worse: This misunderstanding makes Corvus think Serena betrayed him, causing him to become evil and vows to destroy the mortals and Celestains alike.
  • The Gittish Empire captures the Hero after Barbarus defeats Greygnarl with his new, improved power and imprisons them at the Gortress on Hootingham-Gore's orders. However, Goreham-Hogg believes that Hootingham made a mistake and the Hero is not a Celestrain. The Gittish Soldier pipes up to try and tell the truth, but Goreham blows him off and orders the soldier to put the Hero to work with the other prisoners.
    You'd Expect: Hootingham-Gore to personally come down to the Gortress and tell Goreham-Hogg that his report is accurate and even if the Hero is not a Celestrain due to Corvus's attack on the Observatory, they still have the powers of one and should be imprisoned with the other Celestrains.
    Instead: He doesn't visit the Gortress and just chills out at Gittingham Palace, allowing the Hero to meet Sterling and when it's shown that Goreham's Gittish Symbol that Greygnarl gave them can bypass the electric barriers, they organize a prison riot.
    The Result: The Hero and their allies defeat Goreham-Hogg while Sterling reclaims his whistle for the Starflight Express, allowing the Hero to storm Gittingham Palace. Hootingham even mentions it was a bad idea to dismiss the Hero as a threat when he confronts them at the entrance to the palace:
    Hootingham-Gore: Your actions proved me hasty in dismissing you so readily, to wit your liberation of the hoodlums hoo inhabited the Gortress. Although it is that careless toowit Goreham-Hogg hoo is most to blame. It was he hoo caused King Godwyn to scold us so.
• Dragon Quest XI:
  • The kingdom of Heliodor believe the Luminary of legend is actually the Darkspawn, a harbinger of calamity that will destroy the world if left alone. In the meantime, said Luminary (your Player Character) goes out helping people around Erdrea, such as Prince Faris of Gallopolis or the son of Doge Rotondo, and in general, just being a Nice Guy. The people he helped, such as Rotondo, as well as the Luminary's party members are aware of the Luminary/Darkspawn legend.
    You'd Expect: For any of these guys to spread the word that the Luminary isn't a Doom Magnet like everybody else thinks he is.
    Instead: They never think of this. Thus, the poor Hero and his companions keep getting attacked and hounded by Heliodor Knights for the rest of Act I.
  • Sir Hendrik, Sir Jasper, and the other knights of Heliodor are firm in their belief that the Luminary is the Darkspawn who will destroy the world. The Luminary's partners are also attacked simply by being associated with him.
    You'd expect: For anyone of the Luminary's partners (since the Luminary himself can't talk) to try and vouch for their friend's defense. Of course, simply yelling "HE'S NOT THE DARKSPAWN!" probably won't get through the Heliodor Knights, seeing how unreasonable they are, but it's at least worth a try!
    Instead: None of them say anything in defense of the Luminary.
  • After the Luminary opens the Heart of Yggdrasil to acquire the Sword of Light, Jasper attacks the party to steal it for Mordegon. He wields a mystical Orb of Darkness granted to him by Mordegon which nullifies any of the party's attacks against him.
    You'd Expect: The Luminary to go up and grab the Sword of Light less than 30 feet away to help dispel the Orb's effects. Surely his party could survive for the few seconds it would take, and he's closer to it than Jasper is.
    Instead: The Luminary fights alongside the party, despite all attacks being ineffective.
    As a Result: The Luminary is defeated alongside his party. This allows Mordegon to waltz on in and steal his power to open the way to the Sword of Light himself, transforming it into the Sword of Shadows and using it to destroy Yggdrasil. Without the tree's power, the world becomes vulnerable and Mordegon turns it into a monster-infested hellhole.
    Even Worse: When the Luminary goes back in time to the fight wielding the very Sword of Shadows that Mordegon converted, he is able to dispel Jasper's barrier and derail Mordegon's whole plan, proving the Sword of Light had the capability to do so all along.
  • Jasper is found at Heliodor Castle and after fighting Hendrik while taunting him about his naivety about Mordegon using him and now siding with the Darkspawn, sends Tyriant to dispatch his former friend and said friend's new ally, though they manage to defeat the Spectral Sentinel, but this does prove the Luminary is still alive.
    You'd Expect: Jasper to inform Mordegon that the Luminary lives and all monsters and Spectral Sentinels should be put on high alert for his death since Tyriant's dead and the Purple Orb has been reclaimed. Oh, and kill anyone who could support the Luminary and Hendrik, such as the monks on Angri-La, the Sultan of Gallopolis, or even the party members who survived, such as Erik or Serena.^note Except Jade, who's already under Booga's control via his Hare-Raising Suit.
    Instead: Just like with Hootingham-Gore 2 games ago, he just chills out at the Fortress of Fear while the Luminary and Hendrik get Rab, Sylvando, Jade, Erik, and Serena back together ^note With the exception of Veronica, who died to save everyone from Yggdrasil's collapse while defeating the remaining Spectral Sentinels, including Alizarin, who informs Mordegon that the Luminary is still alive.
    The Result: By the time the Luminary and the party have reached the Fortress of Fear and defeated Indignus, Jasper is forced to take matters into his own hands, first by using an illusion of Veronica, then when Serena dispels it with her harp, fight the party himself in his Unbound form.
• Dragon Age: Origins:
  • Isolde, wife of Arl Eamon, ruler of Redcliffe, discovers her son is a mage. Being her only son, revealing it would see him locked away in a tower for his entire life, an outcome she'd rather avoid.
    You'd Expect: Isolde weighs up all her options carefully, and either spends a lot of time looking for a completely trustworthy mage outside the circle to teach her son to control his magic enough to not be a problem, or failing that admit the truth and do what she can to visit her son as often as possible.
    Instead: She takes the first apostate Mage she could and gives him the complete run of the castle while tutoring Conner. Said Mage is Jowan from the Mage Origin, who has been pressed into service by Loghain into poisoning Eamon.
  • On the subject of Jowan; he found out he was going to be made Tranquil thanks to evidence he was a blood mage. In response he plans a raid on the phylactory depository to let him escape from the Circle with no way to track him down. To do this he guilts his girlfriend to help him perform this heist under assurances that the accusations of him committing blood magic are false and then attempts to do the same to his best friend (whether he actually succeeds in this is depended on player choices). This results in both his best friend and his lover being captured and him being unambiguously outed as a blood mage when he uses blood magic to make his escape.
    You'd Expect: Jowan to try to put as much distance between him and the Circle Tower as he possibly can, and even then he probably have to keep a low profile for the rest of his life.
    Instead: He stops in the very first major settlement he comes across, agrees to take a fairly high-profile job, and then poisons a beloved leader in return for Loghain pulling some strings to get him back in the Circle. Because he's homesick.
  • So with that done, Jowan poisons Eamon and he falls ill. Redcliffe now falls into the hands of Isolde.
    You'd Expect: Isolde takes over ruling the arling to the best of her ability.
    Instead: She sends out all of Redcliffe's knights (all of them) to go find the legendary Urn of Sacred Ashes in the remote hope that it might cure him. This leaves the arling, and especially the castle and nearby village defenseless and at the mercy to whatever malevolent force just happens upon it...such as a demon that has possessed her magically-inept and naive mage son by taking advantage of his own desperate wish to save his father.
  • Bann Teagan, who's in charge of the Redcliffe village prepares for the desperate fight with the undead that are about to emerge from the castle. Suddenly a Gray Warden arrives and seeks entrance to the castle, which there is, through the secret passage Teagan knows about. Hoping to employ Warden's help against the undead attack he keeps silent about the passage. Warden has an option to leave the village to its doom, since, even if they help defend it, there is no way for them to get into the castle and achieve their goal, so there's no point in risking their lives.
    You'd Expect: Teagan to spill the beans about the passage. The Warden is obviously not a coward, so if provided an access to the castle, they might defeat whatever is reigning the undead and prevent the upcoming attack altogether. It's not like he loses anything as otherwise the Warden will just leave.
    Instead: He remains silent, the whole village is slaughtered, and Teagan himself only survives because somebody still has to reveal the passage to the Warden who inexplicably returns to the village after the battle is over.
  • At the end of Anders' personal quest in Awakening, the Templar assigned to capture him (he is an Apostate, after all) confronts the party, and learns that Anders has officially become a Grey Warden, making him essentially untouchable by her.
    You'd Expect: The Templar to think rationally and decide capturing one Apostate isn't worth risking the ire of the Wardens or the King/Queen. (Or suggest that you'll be the one to kill Anders if he goes off the deep end)
    Instead: She completely snaps and tries to murder every non-Templar in the area. Naturally, this doesn't end well for her.
    You'd also expect: The ambush to take place in an empty warehouse with other templars and circle mages ready to bombard the party as soon as they stepped through the door.
    Instead: She sets up what is probably the most poorly planned ambush in the history of RPGs. The warehouse contains chests full of lyrium potions, superior mage robes for Anders, and other goodies useful for mages. She also waits patiently for the party to reach the phylactery room before delivering a Pre-Asskicking One-Liner (or, perhaps more accurately, Pre-Getting-Her-Ass-Kicked-One-Liner) before feebly attacking the party with only two other templars.
• Drakengard 2: Nowe, a Knight of the Seal, has just survived General Gismor's attempt to poison him, and grievously wounded Gismor in the process. His childhood friend, Eris, finds them in the room, and is naturally shocked by the scene, demanding an explanation from Nowe.
  You'd Expect: Nowe would point at Gismor and yell, "He tried to poison me! It's there, on the table!"
  Instead: Nowe runs for it, while Eris sounds the alarm and forces Nowe to carve his way through the Knights of the Seal HQ, guaranteeing he'll never be allowed back in.
  Even Worse: At several points during the game, Nowe runs into Eris, who clearly doesn't think that Nowe has told her everything about what happened. Despite all these opportunities to try to explain the truth, he never does so.
• Happens all the time in Dwarf Fortress.
  • Dwarves have an understanding of how fire works. They're known for being smiths, after all.
    You'd Expect: Dwarves would avoid things that are on fire.
    Instead: They see nothing wrong with picking up a still-burning sock and end up doing a spirited impression of a torch.
  • The elven caravan that arrives every spring is always free pickings, since it is only guarded by its pack beasts and a handful of unarmed and untrained merchants. Should you decide to capture/kill the merchants and loot the caravan, from the Elves' point of view the caravan was never heard from since it entered your territory.
    You'd Expect: The elves to do any or all of the following: Sending scouts or envoys to learn of the caravan's fate, stop sending their caravans through your turf, start dispatching an armed escort with their caravans, or sending their army to your fortress before you have the time to use the stolen goods to expand it.
    Instead: It takes about 5-6 years of consecutive trading caravans mysteriously disappearing and their goods somehow ending up in your treasury for the elves to eventually put two and two together and send an armed force to your doorstep. Until then, they're happy to keep sending you new traders full of exotic goods.
    In addition: Said force is always armed with wooden weapons. Which is understandable for their archers, who can be quite deadly, but makes their melee troops utterly laughable. A rookie fighter with decent iron or steel gear can take on a dozen elven warriors and walk out without a scratch.
    And to top that: Letting an elf escape (as in, having a bloodied, beaten merchant scamper back to their city to inform their king that dwarves seize their caravans and murder their merchants) only takes off a year or two of time until elves launch a siege. That's right, for a couple years they will still send trading caravans to the fortress for which they're readying an attack.
  • Dwarves also have an understanding that the various creatures of the world are dangerous. Or, at the very least, that anything that kills a dwarf probably won't be friendly to other dwarves.
    You'd Expect: That dwarves would avoid any creature that can injure or kill dwarves.
    Instead: The short, bearded idiots run out to loot the corpses of their fallen brethren while the random thing that killed the last dwarf is still in plain sight.
• Dynasty Warriors 4: In Campaign for the Wu Territory, Sun Ce's forces have been hitting Liu Xun's area pretty hard. Yan Baihu and Wang Liang arrive with large reinforcements to assist, potentially too much for the Wu army to handle. By this point several bases that the Wu army already captured have Gongs nearby, which they soon learn banging on will signal that allies have arrived to help and that they should open the gates.
  • You'd Expect: Someone might check outside to make sure that these red armor wearing soldiers that have been attacking them are nowhere near any doors, or at least place the gongs in hard to reach yet easy to observe areas. If nothing else than to just flat out refuse to open the doors on account of nearby bases being lost recently.
    Instead: The Liu Xun forces let the Wu army in, no questions asked, and promptly get slaughtered. This causes the area to be lost to Sun Ce.
• Dynasty Warriors 7: In Guandu, Liu Bei, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun, who are allied with Yuan Shao, discovers Guan Yu on Cao Cao's side, much to their shock and disbelief. Yuan Shao finds out...
  You'd Expect: He'd allow Liu Bei to explain the situation. It's obvious that he doesn't know, much less condone this. Maybe seeing his sworn brothers may convince him to return to their side (And if he's repaying a debt to Cao Cao, he's already killed his two best warriors so that should suffice) and possibly decrease morale on the enemy's side.
  Instead: Shao accuses Liu Bei of betrayal and orders his men to capture him, distracting them from facing Cao Cao (Who History-aside most likely used this to his advantage and won the battle).
  However: At this point, Yuan Shao was implied to be senile and thus it likely wouldn't have mattered if Liu Bei explained or not.

Video Games E-K

• Ed, Edd n Eddy: The Mis-Edventures
  • In Level 2 (Pin the Tail on the Ed), the Eds are banned from attending Jimmy's birthday party as Rolf mocks them while standing on the other side of the wood fence gate barring them.
    You'd Expect: For the Eds to use Batter-Ed on the wooden gate and crash the party.
    Instead: They follow up on Ed's suggestion to go through the horribly unsanitary, reeking sewers that is infested with alligators, rats and clams. It takes the Eds forever to go through the Absurdly Spacious Sewer and battle the Swarm of Rats. And once they get to Jimmy's backyard, the party's already over and all that's left of Jimmy's birthday cake is frosting stuck to the candles, which Ed proceeds to suck on.
• Empire Earth: The Novaya Russia Campaign brings us Grigor Stoyanovich, who having built up his empire, wants to leave a son or a daughter to said empire. However, he just so happens to be sterile, and none of the medical technologies can cure his sterility.
  You'd Expect: Him to just adopt a kid. In the 1990s alone, there were at least 455,000 orphans in Russian Orphanages, and even if the amount of orphans being adopted is larger than the amount of orphans arriving in orphanages at this point, surely there's at least one he'd find to be a worthy heir.
  Instead: He leaves the entire country to a robot named Grigor II, which was built as a bodyguard.
  Result: It's a Rotten Robotic Replacement, and Grigor II begins destroying all nations not under his control, and turns Novaya Russia into a fascist regime. Molotov, someone who had previously had Undying Loyalty towards his homeland, defects and goes back in time.
• In End Roll, Dreamsend Inc decides to conduct an experiment to use a new drug to create dreams/nightmares that produce guilt in death row inmates. The subjects are each placed in an individual bedroom for this purpose. Given the nature of the procedure, there is a very real possibility that one of the subjects may snap from the traumatic nightmares, and explode violently (given that these are people on death row).
  You'd Expect: The Dreamsend lab workers to ensure that the bedrooms are safe and free of anything subjects can use as a weapon, and that trained employees will administer the syringe containing the drug to the subjects.
  Instead: Dreamsend gives the syringes to the test subjects and has them self-inject it.
  Result: Russell, in the true end, stabs himself to death with the syringe, just as he successfully completed the experiment.
• In Entry Point (Roblox), after the events of "The Lakehouse", Halcyon discovers evidence that they've been infiltrated and one of them happens to be The Mole, and they've identifed them as Rose, and one of her subordinates is the Freelancer.
  • You'd Expect:: To ignore the Freelancer and just simply focus on eliminating Rose.
  • Instead: Not only do they decide to target Rose, but also the Freelancer due to their ties with her.
  • The Following Happens: In "Dedication", Wren and the Freelancer begin to prepare a hole for a body bag, then talk about their life choices and how they got there. Unbeknownst to the Freelancer, however, Wren is about to execute them for their supposed ties towards Phoenix.
  • You'd then Expect: For Wren to go straight for the vital organs, instantly killing them. Given his history, he should act like a professional.
  • Instead: He then proceeds to wound the Freelancer, stating that their squad was compromised while stating it was "Nothing Personal", before deciding to land the final blow to them.
  • As a Result: Jackdaw manages to come just right on time and kill Wren before he could execute the Freelancer, and helps them recover, essentially marking the beginning of the end of Halcyon just because Wren wouldn't go straight to the point.
• In Eternal Darkness, one of the chapters involves the monk Paul Luther being under suspect after discovering a dead corpse at the Oublié Cathedral. The custodian then trusts Paul to do an investigation that will help reveal evidence of a heretical conspiracy within the Cathedral. Sure enough, Paul finds some papers and artifacts that confirm their suspicions, wherein which the custodian, unveiling a sacrificial dagger he found under his pillow declares that he knows too much and that the conspirators are likely on to him.
  • You'd Expect: given the custodian’s stance that both he and Paul would exit the Cathedral downstairs along with the evidence Paul has collected, in the hopes that they can warn the outside authorities of the conspiracy while presenting the evidence to prove their innocence, before the conspirators catch up to them. (Paul can use his Mace/Sword and the tome of Eternal Darkness to defend himself and the custodian if needed.)
    Instead: Paul just leaves on his own to try and put an end to the heresy himself while a guardian sneaks up on the custodian. Paul later finds (what’s left of) him on the sacrificial pillar below the Cathedral!
  • Similarly, In Maximillian’s chapter, Max uncovers a vast ancient city underneath the Roivas Mansion that is crawling with the zombies and guardians of the ancients. Because of this, he gets the idea that because of their numbers, he can’t possibly fight all of them alone, and that he needs to find some form of outside help if he is going to vanquish the threat at all.
    You'd Expect: Given that one of his servants was overtaken by a bone-theif, that he’d keep a close but subtle eye on his servants while he looked for some outside assistance, (be it his servants or the authorities) and just show them the city for themselves, and only react forcefully if one of his servants attacks him, in case he/she has been overtaken by a bone-theif.
    Instead: before he can do any of this, under the paranoia of one of his servants being overtaken he bursts into the servant’s sleeping quarters and kills four(?) of his servants without taking any provisional steps at all!
    The Result: No one believes him when he explains his story, and he is thrown into the madhouse where he continues to shout out his warnings despite no one listening to follow him into the city.
• In The Exorcism of Annabelle Sunray, the founder and head of The Church, an orphanage for troubled orphans, has passed away and someone needs to replace him. Tiffany Moonlight is set to get the job, but Jason Sunray, who also wants the job, decides to lie to the police that Tiffany is mentally unfit for the position.
  You'd Expect: The police to recognize this as a blatant lie, since Tiffany is a kind, loving, and level-headed person while Jason is a known child abuser.
  Instead: The police believe the abuser, who promptly steals the job from the candidate who actually deserves it.
  As A Result: The new head turns The Church into a horrific Orphanage of Fear where the children are subjected to similar mistreatment that the head inflicted upon Annabelle.
• In Fable II, Lucien needs to gather the three heroes and absorb their power in order to use the Tattered Spire. Obviously, you, as the hero, have to stop him.
  You'd Expect: The hero to try killing one of the three heroes. If they're evil, any of them are fair game, and if they're good, the Hero of Skill is a mass murderer, extremely narcissistic, and a total Jerkass all around.
  Instead: The hero spends over a decade gathering the heroes in order to perform a ritual to forge an artifact that removes Lucien's power after he performs his version of the ritual with the same heroes. Not only does this plan only work if Lucien captures the heroes after you already used them, but a ton of very bad things happened as you wasted all of that time.

• Fairy Fencer F: The Dorfa Corporation makes itself out to be a highly benevolent company, but secretly employs people like Zenke who's a known violent outlaw. Fang ends up defeating Zenke, saving a small town he was terrorizing in the process. This ends up interfering with Dorfa's goals and the president declares that they should look into who he is, that no one gets away with interfering.
  You'd Expect: That they would look into employing Fang, now a known hero who has proven his superiority over one of Dorfa's strongest, as both a PR move a way to keep tabs on him while disposing of any evidence that may exist connecting them to Zenke.
  Instead: They attack him openly and confess to working with Zenke, leading Fang and the rest of the group to come to the conclusion that they're evil and looking to use the Furies for world domination.
  In the Vile God timeline in Advent Dark Force, they actually do employ Fang as a figurehead president in an effort to try to keep him from regaining his memories of the original timeline. Granted, your party's intervention eventually causes the plan to fail, but points for trying.

• Fallout: New Vegas:
  • New California Republic President Aaron Kimball decides to make a visit to Hoover Dam to deliver a speech, despite the fact the Caesar's Legion is literally next door and will be looking to take him out.
    You'd Expect: Him to do the speech by radio from a secure location inside the dam, make damn sure there was no way anyone could get in with a gun, much less a bomb, or not hold the speech on the front lines. In failing that, he could at least not announce it ahead of time so that the Legion won't have time to plan the assassination.
    Instead: He announces it ahead of time, claiming that he wants to give the troops a morale boost. This gives the Legion time to plan. He doesn't even bother to hide his entry, coming in via Vertibird, and holds the speech outside the dam. If you aren't there to protect him, he predictably dies.
  • Joshua Graham is the Legate of Caesar's Legion and leads them to Hoover Dam, where they run into the forces of the New California Republic. Legion tactics dictate that the most inexperienced go first to act as a bullet sponge, followed by more experienced troops with the veterans bringing up the rear to mop up any remaining resistance. However, Hoover Dam is a bottleneck where the numbers of the Legion are made moot in the face of a hail of gunfire. In addition, cliffs surround the position and provide good positions of fire for the NCR's sharpshooters.
    You'd Expect: He would sit back, look at his tactical options and do as his boss would do, covering his flanks with skirmishers and trying to find some way around the bottleneck. And if not around it, move through it as quickly as possible.
    Instead: Graham sticks to the playbook like glue, sending his forces without cover over exposed and narrow ground. While the rank-and-file are getting torn to pieces by NCR regulars, Rangers and First Recon begin picking off the veterans in the rear from their cliff-top positions.
    Even Worse: Graham decides to counter this by sending his veterans to push to the sharpshooter's position. They fall back, heading into Boulder City, which has been rigged with explosives. The Legion's finest fall hook, line and sinker for the trap, riding the town right into the stratosphere. The rest of the forces panic and rout with the loss of the veterans, but the dam provides no escape. Graham lost almost the entire army.
    So: Caesar is predictably angry, has his Legate set on fire and thrown into the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately for him and the Legion, Graham miraculously survives his punishment and travels to New Canaan to atone for his failures and form a new group of tribals, while fending off some of the best assassins that Caesar sent after him. This not only gives the NCR a political and psychological victory, but gives the Legion a boogeyman in the form of the Burned Man. Both veteran Ranger Chief Hanlon and Graham himself discuss this, the latter admitting that while a good fighter, he was never any good at tactics.
  • Caesar requests a cordial meeting with the Courier, up to and including pardoning their past crimes (which could include any of the following: convincing the Great Khans to break their alliance with the Legion, killing Vulpes Inculta in Nipton, massacring untold numbers of Legionnaires, making Cottonwood Cove radioactive, sabotaging their spy's efforts to bomb the monorail at Camp McCarran, breaking up a weapons deal with the Van Graffs, and preventing the Omertas from acting on their plan to seize the New Vegas Strip at the same time the Legion makes their play). Regardless of how Benny is dealt with, Caesar is in control of the Platinum Chip, and asks the Courier to use it to destroy a Weather Monitoring Station near the base of The Fort.
    You'd Expect: Given that Caesar has never met the Courier up until this point, he's extremely curious about what's in the Station (to the point of obsessing over it for several years) and he thinks there may be some type of technology down below, he'd send some Legionnaires to escort the Courier to their destination. He even has several Legionnaires placed at the front entrance and inside the top of the station to advise the Courier about what to do.
    Instead: Caesar simply assumes that the station was destroyed, without bothering to inquire about the matter further or sending any soldiers whatsoever to check the station. This occurs even if you upgraded the Securitrons to the Mark II firmware.
  • A trio of looters led by Logan are hanging in a basement at a wrecked church in Camp Searchlight in search of any loot the NCR left behind. The thing is, the town was once home to an NCR outpost which was recently rendered uninhabitable thanks to a radioactive dirty bomb detonated in the middle of the town by Legion agents. The resulting explosion led to several casualties on both sides, and the NCR was forced to retreat elsewhere. Once the Courier stumbles upon the gang, they hire them to retrieve a package of radiation suits in a cave near Nipton. After the Courier retrieves said suits and gives them what they need, the gang and the Courier then begin looting the police and fire stations in Searchlight. During the expedition, they encounter a dangerous pack of radscorpions led by a queen giant and the group eventually squashes the scorpions dead (although in reality, it's the Courier doing all the dirty work as the gang does nothing but loitering around). At the end of the quest, the Courier eventually retrieves all the loot that the gang needs.
    You'd Expect: That Logan would agree to split even the shares with the Courier or optionally the Courier decline receiving the shares and let the gang keep everything. Either way, the deal could have ended relatively amicably.
    Instead: Logan pulls a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness moment in the worst possible time ever by turning on you. Cue the Courier, who has probably already taken several levels in badass by now and may have several companions with them, Curb-Stomping them in a messy end, and walking away with the whole lion's share of the loot. Should've thought this through, Logan.
• Fallout 4:
  • In the quest "Curtain Call", the main NPC Rex Goodman is put into a jail by Super Mutants. However, he finds a radio.
    You'd Expect: That Rex would be able to tell that the radio's sole purpose is to lure in more humans and, therefore, not use it.
    Instead: He decides to broadcast a distress signal, which would draw in more people. Even Strong is able to tell that it was a trap and thought that Rex knew already.
  • The entire game's main story is kickstarted by the fact that The Institute, looking to further advance Synth technology, need clean human DNA completely unaffected by nuclear fallout to do so, believing their best bet is to get it from Shawn, an infant frozen in cryostasis in Vault 111.
    You'd Expect: The Institute to have their agents only unthaw both Shawn and his parents' stasis pods and convince them all to go with them to their facility, leaving the remaining residents frozen and none the wiser.
    Instead: The Institute orders their mercenary-henchman Conrad Kellogg to unthaw and open only Shawn's pod, with the Institute scientists trying to forcefully pull Shawn out of the arms of whichever parent's holding him, who promptly resists. Kellogg them shoots said parent in the head then looks directly at the Sole Survivor's pod, partially unthawed with them fully witnessing their spouse's murder and leaves after calling them "the backup" and shutting down the pods of the other residents, killing them. Even Kellogg admits the whole operation was approached in an arbitrarily violent way and might've lead to The Institute's downfall courtesy of the Sole Survivor going on a warpath against them, and depending on what choices you make later in the game, you might end up proving him right.
  • Late in the game, the Brotherhood of Steel has a run in with the Railroad if you had sided with either.
    You'd Expect: That the Brotherhood might temporarily form a truce with the Railroad so they could take down what they both admit is the greatest threat to the Commonwealth, then continue fighting each other once the threat has been eliminated. At the very least, the Brotherhood could choose to ignore the Railroad for the time being since the Institute is the greater, immediate threat and they need as many people they can.
    Instead: They arbitrarily attack the Railroad despite having no immediate reason to. A Sole Survivor aligned with the Railroad would wipe the floor clean with them, so it would just end up being a waste of resources.
  • Similarly, the Railroad is planning to defeat the Institute, though they want a full on battle rather than rely on subterfuge like they normally do.
    You'd Expect: That they would take all the help they could get, such as the Minutemen under your command.
    Instead: Desdemona declines their help, citing their ideological differences. This doesn't make sense because both factions just want the Institute destroyed. The Minutemen's desire to create a more stable Commonwealth doesn't contradict the Railroad's desire for the liberation of synths.
  • Around the endgame, Father reveals that he is dying. In both the Institute and Railroad questlines (the latter of which has you playing double agent, spying for the Railroad on the Institute), he says he's making the Sole Survivor his successor.
    You'd Expect: The Sole Survivor to phone in on the Railroad and say something like "phew, he's handing off the reins to me. If we wait a month or two for this guy to croak, I can just put in the order to free the synths in one fell swoop, no fight necessary."
    Instead: The Sole Survivor never even thinks to suggest this, and the Railroad figures a pitched battle is the best way to resolve their problems.
• Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly, introductory cutscene. Two sisters, Mio and Mayu, are playing in a forest when Mayu runs off out of the blue. Mio follows her, only to find that, in the space of about two seconds, the sky above has switched very conspicuously from bright day to darkest night. There is literally no way this change could be interpreted as normal. Clearly, there's some sort of weird demon shit going on.
  You'd Expect: Mio stops and tries to figure out what the hell is going on. At the very least, running blindly through a pitch-dark forest is likely to get her ankle broken. At most...well, there's a reason people aren't accustomed to the sun just up and disappearing.
  Instead: Mio continues to chase Mayu...right into the cursed, haunted village and past the magically enforced Point of No Return. At no point does she show any surprise over the celestial atmosphere losing its shit, and she and Mayu walk right into the creepy, deserted village.
• Fate/stay night:
  • During the Heaven's Feel route, Sakura has had her internal mana eating parasite activated, causing a race against time to kill Zouken before he can screw with her head and turn him to his side. The plan is highly contingent on Sakura's state of mind staying intact.
    You'd Expect Shirou and Rider would go out of their way to clear up Sakura's very obvious doubts and insecurities and pay more attention to what she says. Tohsaka could emphasize their family bonds. Or something. But not be a total jerkass.
    Instead Rider hides from Shirou and Tohsaka and doesn't explain how Sakura is feeling. Shirou tunes out when Sakura tries to tell him important things, and doesn't really mention that he loves her and his reaction to Tohsaka does not mean he likes her more than Sakura. Tohsaka goes out of her way to belittle her and deride Sakura's worthlessness and willpower after the game explicitly stated her will cannot be broken by people she distrusts.
  • In the backstory the Einzbern family got sick of being unable to win the Grail.
    You'd Expect: They would look for a really strong Servant to fight for them or look for someone really good to fight for them, both of which were things they would eventually try much later.
    Instead: In the Third War they decided to summon what they thought was an actual mythological god of evil. Not only does it turn out that he's actually an incredibly weak Servant closer to an average human it also means that when he's killed and absorbed into the Grail his wish to actually be that god results in the corruption of the Grail and ultimately causes many of the later tragedies in the Fourth and Fifth wars as well as almost ending humanity in one route. How the Einzberns ever thought it could go well, let alone better than their later plans, is a mystery.
• In the ancient ZX Spectrum game Feud, bad guy Leanoric curses you with an aging spell before the start of the game that will kill you after one day. The only way to reverse the curse is to kill him.
  You'd Expect: Leanoric to actively avoid you. The sensible course of action would be to evade you for the day and win by default.
  Instead: He comes after you trying to kill you, giving you a chance to fight back and kill him, saving yourself, making one wonder what he cast the spell for.
• Final Fight: The Mad Gear have been terrorizing Metro City for some time now, but a recent election has put former professional wrestler Mike Haggar in the position of mayor and he's really cracking down on crime. Two things to note, Haggar is only freshly retired from pro wrestling, and wrestling in this universe is not scripted, so Haggar is a genuine One-Man Army.
  You'd Expect: That the Mad Gear would Know When to Fold 'Em, pick up their war chest from raiding the city, and move to another location where they can keep doing their dirty business in peace.
  Instead: They kidnap Haggar's daughter Jessica trying to intimidate him into keeping the status quo. This only serves to make Haggar mad, so he takes to the streets personally to disrupt the Mad Gear's operations to find his daughter.
  Even Worse: Jessica happens to have a boyfriend named Cody Travers who is an accomplished street fighter, and both Haggar and Cody happen to know a justice-seeking ninja named Guy who lets Cody what's going on. Needless to say these two decide to join Haggar in stopping the Mad Gear, so now they have three One-Man Armies to deal with.
  Result: The Mad Gear is completely decimated, with their leader Belger killed by knocking him out a window.
• Forspoken:
  • In the beginning of the game, Frey is established as a girl with poor living condition in New York who resorts to crime just to survive. One night, the gang she got in trouble with sets her apartment on fire. When the player takes control of Frey, the bag full of her life savings is right on her feet, complete with interaction prompt to boot.
    You'd Expect: Frey to secure her bag first before looking for her pet Homer. After all, the bag doesn't seem to be too big or heavy for her to carry.
    Instead: No matter how many times the player prompts her to take the bag, Frey refuses and insists on finding Homer first, almost as if picking up the bag will prevent her from saving her pet.
    Result: When Frey finally rescues Homer, the fire has grown too severe, and her savings are lost beyond recovery. The arson not only leaves Frey homeless, but also penniless. It's also possible that Frey will cross Despair Event Horizon have it not for her fateful encounter with Cuff.
  • Frey gets arrested by the guards which miscommunicates her appearance as a monster (from the Break's corruption). In the Council Chambers, Councilwoman Bellette question about how Frey appeared in the world of Athia.
    You'd Expect: Frey would tell the truth of teleported by the portal with Cuff and how she is not related to the Break. This is also by telling to save Athia as the community sentence before allowing her to go back New York City. Also in the fantasy world, Frey would avoid mentioning the modern terms as people cannot understand what she is saying.
    Instead: She's responded by the modern terms like Hell's Kitchen neighborhood like she was transfered from the Hellspawn (in the past) in front of the Cipol citizens and Councilwoman Bellette.
    Result: This placed the council's order to execute Frey, before changing by sending her into the Tower of Binnoi prison. Frey would accept starving to death (as an execution consequence), if it wasn't for the escape with Auden.
• Near the end of Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist, Freddy finds himself face to face with Kenny the Kid, the man who shot him in the ear, who has been sent by the Big Bad to kill him. In this rematch duel, both shoot at the same time, but Freddy only disarms Kenny, while Kenny’s shot finds it’s mark.
  You’d Expect: Kenny to pick his gun back up and finish Freddy off.
  Instead: Kenny taunts the wounded Freddy, and, confident that he will die, also reveals the Big Bad’s identity: the town schoolteacher, Penelope Primm. Now knowing who’s been causing all the strange problems around town, Freddy recovers from his injury, confronts Penelope and takes the villain down, and then kills Kenny when he checks on the situation. If Kenny had kept his mouth shut, Freddy would have never known that Penelope was the Big Bad, and he wouldn’t have gotten killed. Way to go, Kenny.
• FreeSpace 2:
  • A few missions into the campaign, the GTVA discovers an ancient artificial subspace portal deep in the previously strategically uninteresting Gamma Draconis system, near the site of an ambush by the returning-after-thirty-years Big Bad Shivans. The Alliance is intrigued by this discovery, because of the potential for the technology to be used to revive the collapsed subspace link to Earth, as well as the strategically-important resources that lie in the nebula beyond the portal. Unfortunately, as they explore the other side, they discover Shivans, Shivans, more Shivans, even more Shivans, and ummm... Lots of Shivans, which eventually ends up in an encounter with a massive juggernaut warship, designated Sathanas, that could rip apart an entire fleet in two minutes.
    You'd Expect The Alliance to gather as much data as they can about the ancient portal, immediately retreat from the nebula, deactivate the portal, blow up the subspace link, and live happily ever after. The Shivans, of course, are those Omnicidal Maniacs from thirty years ago who had that invulnerable SD Lucifer with the Wave-Motion Gun that was used to level all of the cities in the planet of Vasuda, killing four billion Vasudans and rendering the planet uninhabitable. They nearly reached Earth, if not for the heroic efforts of Alliance pilots who managed to destroy the Lucifer in subspace, which caused the collapse of the subspace link to Earth.
    Instead: The Alliance:
    • Kept trying to fight the Shivans inside an unknown system. Never mind that this is a species that almost wiped out everyone in this side of the galaxy thirty years ago. To hell with the fact that it was the Shivans who destroyed the Ancients, a race that had a huge empire and was way more advanced than the Terrans and the Vasudans combined (not actually true for technology as a whole, but the Alliance doesn't know that since the only surviving pieces of Ancient technology are ones belonging to a category in which the Ancients were just that advanced). Despite the fact that the only response to a threat this species knows is more...and bigger.
    • Logically, with the Shivans having sent their biggest, they could only respond with more. Obviously, at this point, the GTVA does not have the logistical and manufacturing output to keep up with the more advanced Shivans and they could do nothing but attempt to gather intel about the Shivans' whereabouts and plans. The GTVA still went back inside the nebula. And did they get more. They retreat, but now it's too late. The only option left is to evacuate an entire star system and blow up the jump nodes leading to the Shivan-infested systems to seal them off.
    • Ironically, a dialogue between your wingmen in the first nebula mission heavily foreshadows the later events. Yes, even the Red Shirts think this is a bad idea. One wingman even told the other to shut up, that they're just following orders and they can't do anything about it! Seriously, whoever was put in charge as the commander-in-chief of the GTVA must really have appallingly poor strategic knowledge and leadership skills for his/her military and needs to be either relieved of command or executed for horrendous incompetence.
      Wingman A: ...I never signed on for hunting Shivans!
      Wingman B: Don't kid yourself, we're the ones being hunted, pilot.
      Wingman C: Command should shut down that portal and send the Aquitaine back to Deneb. We've got no business being out here!
      Wingman D: If Command needs your opinion they'll promote you to Admiral, now shut up and focus.
  • As mentioned before, the Sathanas has extremely powerful forward mounted guns.
    You'd Expect: When attacking an enemy, it will try to keep the enemy in front.
    Instead: The ship is passing the Colossus and is unable to continue firing. As a result, the Colossus survives even without further assistance of the player with the above mentioned thirty to fifty-percent hull integrity. Otherwise it would be destroyed.
• Ganbare Goemon: During Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, the Peach Mountain Shoguns have captured the Wise Man, a genius robotics inventor, and bribe him to create robots and an Instant Stage Beam for them by offering him several porn mags and a gravure idol poster. Later as Goemon and Ebisumaru are passing the Wise Man's house, Sasuke accidentally destroys it with a fire bomb, causing his batteries to pop out and his body to go flying (he also loses his memory of the event). Both the two heroes and a member of the Flake Gang arrive to investigate. Naturally Goemon accusses the Peach Mountain Shoguns of the destruction.
  You'd Expect: That the Flake Gang member would at least try to explain that they had nothing to do with the destruction and why.
  Instead: He gets annoyed at the accusation and decides to destroy the duo using a giant robot, only for it get wiped out by Goemon Impact.
  Result: The heroes continue to assume Peach Mountain was responsible and say this to Wise Man when they finally find him. Angered at the supposed betrayal, he upgrades the heroes' weapons so they can smash their way into the Peach Mountain's hideout, allowing them to defeat their leaders.
• Gears of War:
  • In Gears 5, the Swarm attacks and destroys the Hammer of Dawn targetting beacons, preventing their safe use by the COG, using a massive creature called the Kraken. The Kraken brings forth the swarm's leader, Queen Reyna, who grabs and strangles Kait. JD and Del attempt to save Kait and kill Reyna, but fail, with Reyna restraining and holding up both of them while slowly strangling all three of them. However, Kait is able to bring out her knife and can throw it.
    You'd Expect: Kait to throw the knife straight at Reyna's exposed face. If it doesn't outright kill her, it would at least wound or stun her, causing her to loose her grasp and allowing the three of them to potentially break free.
    Alternatively: Kait to use the knife to cut herself free, then potentially grab a weapon or then try to kill Reyna by throwing the knife.
    Instead: Kait throws the knife at one of the tentacles holding Del or JD (dependant on the player's choice).
    The Result: The companion Kait chose to save is able to go free, while Queen Reyna kills the companion Kait didn't pick by snapping their neck.
• Genshin Impact:
  • The people of Tsurumi Island. One day, while on his own and singing a song, a boy named Ruu is approached by the Thunderbird, the guardian deity of the island. The Thunderbird is curious about his song, and he promises to sing it to her again. The other islanders are shocked at this turn of events.
    You'd Expect: The people of Tsurumi Island would take special care of Ruu to ensure that nothing happens to him and he continues to interact with the Thunderbird.
    Instead: The people of Tsurumi Island choose Ruu as their sacrifice to the Thunderbird. This enrages her, and she lays a curse upon the entire island that blankets it in perpetual fog and causes the entire population to either die off or flee. That curse isn't undone until the Traveler reaches the island millennia later.
  • Shenhe's parents are revealed to have been a pair of exorcists. When her mother grew ill, her father decided to do anything to try to save her from her sickness. He learns of an entity that will apparently heal the sick in exchange for the life of a child.
    You'd Expect: A renowned Exorcist to at least do some research into the kind of entity he was summoning to cure his wife to make sure it was not a demon. And also, not to sacrifice his own child to it, especially when his wife expressed the sentiment that she wanted him to prioritize taking care of Shenhe rather than saving her life. Also, not to trust an entity that required the sacrifice of a child to summon at all.
    Instead: Shenhe's father ignores all the red flags involved with the process and summons the entity, using his own child as bait.
    As A Result: The entity is of course a demon that descends on their village. Shenhe fights it with nothing more than a knife and is taken away by the Adepti. Shenhe's mother dies anyways and her father hangs himself out of guilt and pens a regretful letter to her.
    Even Worse: Their whole village is abandoned because people are unsure the demon was properly dealt with in the past.
• Ghost of Tsushima: Done deliberately as part of the game's themes of pointing out the flaws of rigid dedication to the Bushido Code. There are a couple moments where the stupidity in the name of honor get jaw-droppingly extreme, though.
  • When the Mongols first arrive at Tsushima at Komada Beach, an army of Samurai, including The Protagonist Jin, gather in order to repel them to protect their home.
    You'd Expect: Them to hold a defensive line and maybe even start off shooting arrows at them from a distance.
    Instead: They send forward who's considered their best swordsman to challenge the Mongol leader alone, who instead is casually immolated and then decapitated by said leader.
    You'd Then Expect: They'd hold the line and start shooting arrows upon them^note This is what the 80 samurai in the actual 1274 invasion of Tsushima did under Sou Sukekuni's command, and they managed to hold a landing force of around 8,000 Mongols at Komoda Beach for an entire day before being overrun.
    Instead: They fire their arrows only once, and then charge straight into the Mongols swords swinging, only to get caught into an artillery barrage of exploding arrows.
    Result: Pretty much all of them except for Jin and his uncle Shimura are wiped out, the latter being captured and held hostage and the Mongols soon completely conquer Tsushima.
    Even Worse: Shimura figured that they wouldn't be able to do much against the invasion, and that they'd likely all die, but decided to plan the attack anyway on the hope of merely holding the Mongols off, and that he and his comrades would "die with honor".
  • Having survived the initial battle at the beach with the help of Yuna, Jin learns that Lord Shimura is alive and is being kept hostage at Castle Kaneda.
    You'd Expect: That considering what he saw happen to Adachi, the fact that his armor is less than ideal for combat in its current state, and the fact that he's still recovering from injuries sustained in combat, he'd realize that challenging the Khan right now would be a really bad idea, and that he'd instead opt to spend some time recovering, get some better armor and gather some allies first.
    Instead: After only reclaiming his sword and getting a new horse, he decides to charge the Castle in a one-man attempt to rescue his uncle.
    As A Result: While he does manage to get pretty far, his attempt at challenging Khotun Khan fails and ends with him getting tossed off a bridge, the only plus-side being that he miraculously survives and gets a reality check on how dangerous the Mongols are, going on to become The Ghost.
  • During the siege of Castle Shimura, Shimura's forces manage to retake all but one of its keeps, which the remaining Mongol forces have retreated into.
    You'd Expect: He'd have himself and his army wait it out and exhaust the Mongol's supplies before forcing them to surrender.
    Instead: He has his army try and march across the bridge to take the keep.
    As A Result: The Mongols spring a trap in the form of flaming horses drawing a cart of explosives, which wipes out most of their forces.
    You'd Then Expect: That he would attempt to find an alternative way into the keep in case they try and pull the same stunt again, perhaps asking Jin, who has experience in breaking and entering at this point, to seek one out so they can sneak in and then mount another attack.
    Or At Least: Have him send Jin or Yuna^note (the latter of which he views as disposable and wouldn't care if she'd died because of her use of "dishonorable tactics") to sneak in, see if they have another trap waiting, and report back so he can come up with a more solid plan.
    Or Better Yet: Actually go with the "Starve them out" idea.
    Instead: He wants to rebuild the bridge and charge them again.
    As A Result: His sheer, hard-headed stupidity forces Jin's hand in poisoning the Mongols to prevent him from pointlessly sacrificing his troops, which not only destroys any chance of Jin being adopted as his son, but allows Khotun Kahn to reverse-engineer the poison for his own use.
    Even Worse: When Jin heads over there to poison them, he learns that the Mongols had the gate rigged with more explosives, which would have likely killed more of Shimura's forces if it weren't for Jin.
• Golden Sun:
  • Isaac and his companions are after Saturos's group, who have taken two of their friends hostage. They later defeat him in battle at the Mercury Lighthouse.
    You'd Expect: Isaac's group to try capturing the weakened Saturos, thereby giving them a hostage of their own.
    Instead: They just stand there as Alex explains how they were able to beat Saturos, in order to allow the latter to recover. And he does.
  • Later in the game, Isaac's party is hired to defend a ship from monsters as it crosses an inland sea. It is quickly decided that the most important area of the ship to protect is the oarsmen's deck, since if any of the oarsmen are taken out, the ship won't be going anywhere. Predictably, Isaac's party are asked to defend this area.
    You'd Expect: Isaac and company to stay on the oarsmen's deck, preferably near the single entrance to it. That way, they could intercept any attacking monsters before they can harm the oarsmen.
    Instead: They're in a completely different area than the one they're supposed to be protecting! As a result, whenever monsters attack, an oarsman is always injured by the time Isaac and his friends get there, and they have to rope one of the passengers into rowing in his place.
• Grabbed by the Ghoulies: Ma Soupswell has sent her assistant Mr. Ribs to help Cooper find the giant egg he needs to produce the antidote to Amber's mutant form. The problem is, Mr. Ribs is a skeleton, and Cooper has already encountered several ones who tried to attack him. Peering out from a bush, Mr. Ribs sees that Cooper has already found the egg and is talking with Fiddlesworth.
  You'd Expect: Mr. Ribs to calmly approach Cooper, explain that Ma sent him to help and that he isn’t going to hurt him, and then escort him back to the kitchen. If Cooper doesn’t believe him, he could have Fiddlesworth vouch for him.
  Instead: Mr. Ribs runs past and grabs the egg out of Cooper’s hands, making a beeline for the kitchen with it.
  The Result: Cooper assumes Mr. Ribs is an enemy and chases after him before attacking him when he makes it to the kitchen. Luckily, before Cooper can break Mr. Ribs, Ma comes in and stops him, explaining what her intentions were.
• In the Nightfall campaign of Guild Wars, players release Palawa Joko to help them combat the main bad guy in the game. In the past, this character attempted to conquer the area where Nightfall takes place with a strong army, and was tough to defeat. When he is released, he shows no remorse for this, and in the game starts to rebuild his army.
  You'd Expect After defeating the main villain of the campaign, some of the player characters, heroes, and other members of the order of whispers would grab some worms (Which they have learned how to control during the game), travel to Palawa Joko while they are still on somewhat friendly terms, and capture him while his army is still weak, and the players have the capabilities needed. (This would all happen "offscreen", most likely.)
  Instead In Guild Wars 2, the backstory of the game has Palawa Joko rebuilding his army over time and taking over Elona, causing a lot of destruction and suffering. Perhaps this is simply for Rule of Fun, but it does seem odd that another villain wasn't created for that particular area.
• In Half-Life 2, Alyx and Gordon have just broken into a high security prison to rescue Alyx's father. They learn that Dr. Mossman is a traitor who is a Well-Intentioned Extremist when it comes to keeping Alyx's father out of harm's way. Alyx confronts the traitor, and takes this person along to the teleporter that will be their escape method.
  You'd Expect: Alyx to just enter the coordinates herself, or at the very least ensure that Dr. Mossman isn't in the same teleportation group as her father. Keep in mind, that this is less then a minute after she called this person out for being a traitor.
  Instead: She has the known traitor do it, then acts surprised that Dr. Mossman entered the wrong coordinates and kidnaps her father.
• Halo:
  • In Halo 2, Sesa 'Refumee is leading a rebellion against the Covenant because he has discovered the truth about the Halos: that they're superweapons, not gateways to heaven. To silence him, the Covenant sends a special ops team led by the Arbiter, who manages to trap 'Refumee. However, Sesa has a irrefutable proof: a Forerunner Monitor of the Halos who's glad to tell the truth about the rings.
    You'd Expect: 'Refumee would let the Arbiter listen to the Monitor and thus convert him and his troops to his cause.
    Instead: He attacks the Arbiter before he has time to listen, and thus gets killed by him. The Arbiter thus never hears what the Monitor was going to say until the end of the game.
  • In Halo 4, the Ur-Didact is a Nigh-Invulnerable Forerunner with powers of teleportation, levitation, and telekinesis who plans to wipe out humanity. He's accidentally released from his Cryptum by Master Chief, a human supersoldier who is determined to rectify his mistake.
    You'd Think: The Didact would easily kill Master Chief and be on his way, as his great powers make any fight with him a Curb-Stomp Battle.
    Instead: He monologues to him at length then tosses him aside, and afterward only sends his Promethean minions to attack the Chief whenever that pesky human returns. Only at the end of the game does it occur to him to just teleport to Chief and kill him himself, and even then he wastes time by floating Chief over a chasm then slowly choking him, giving Cortana the chance to save him.
  • Also in Halo 4, Andrew Del Rio, Captain of the UNSC Infinity (humanity's most advanced starship), receives word from Master Chief that a Sealed Evil in a Can has broken out and needs to be stopped before it wages war against humans.
    You'd Expect: He'd believe the celebrated war hero and blast the Didact with everything the ship's got, while the Forerunner is still vulnerable. And send an FTL warning to Earth just in case that still doesn't work.
    Instead: He insists Master Chief is delusional, despite him being the biggest game-changer of the war and despite Del Rio having witnessed floating orb ships, pristine Forerunner structures, and a hollow planet all in the same day. He claims attacking is out of the question because Infinity might be destroyed, despite it being more powerful than entire fleets and having its own fleet. As for sending a message to Earth, he does so by flying to it, which would take hours, rather than an instantaneous message.
    Result: Del Rio gets stripped of his rank by Fleetcom for leaving Chief (who tries to stop the Didact on his own, when Del Rio refuses to do so) on the planet. As for the Didact, he escapes Requiem, retrieves his ship and superweapon, and slaughters the entire population of a UNSC space station and a major city on Earth.
• Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak: One of the relationships you must save is Dexter and Howdy in Boo Manor. After witnessing them arguing, you find Dexter in a different room but Howdy's not with him.
  You'd Expect: Dexter to tell you what happened to Howdy or at the very least for him to warn you that there is a freaking trap door in the room.
  Instead: He either stays silent or tells you to step in front of where he is facing if you do talk to him and you're forced to have Hamtaro drop in the trap door.
  So: Dexter rushes off to get help. In an optional Cutscene, Bijou finds him in a funeral parlor. Dexter sees a rope which he hopes he can use to pull Hamtaro and Howdy to safety. However, the rope's in an open casket.
  You'd Then Expect: Dexter to just forget the rope and find another way to save his friends.
  Instead: He climbs into the casket which slams itself shut and locks him inside.
• In Hamtaro: Rainbow Rescue, the Ham-Hams need to get 7 ingredients that correspond to a colour of the rainbow. Boss, naturally, wants an orange when getting an orange ingredient. The problem is that, along the way, Hamtaro gets a carrot, which is also orange-coloured, its description even explicitly saying that the carrot is orange-coloured.
  You'd Expect: The Ham-Hams would bring the carrot.
  Instead: They keep looking for an orange.
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery:
  • You have to find a black quill hidden in another house's common room.
    You would expect: Your character to simply ask someone from that house to find it for you or let you in.
    Instead: You shrink and unshrink yourself to sneak in yourself, despite being told how dangerous that is and having just learned that charm.
    Result: You attract unwanted attention and get in trouble after distracting the prefect with a prank.
  • Penny needs someone to impersonate Snape and get Merula caught.
    You would expect: Her to ask Tonks, the Metamorphmagus, who probably already has practice at similar pranks.
    Instead: She has you use Polyjuice and bumble through it.
    Result: Hagrid falls for it, McGonagall is suspicious, Dumbledore is onto you and has his own fun playing along and lowkey messing with you.
  • A valuable flying broom goes missing, and Skye Parkin accuses a rival House's Beater of stealing it. She decides to take the player character along to search for the broom in the other House's common room.
    You would expect: Skye Parkin to search quietly, peeking under the furniture without moving it, to avoid being heard by the Head of House.
    Instead: She starts flipping furniture and making a huge racket.
    Result: She and the player character get caught and landed in detention.
• Headhunter: In Redemption, Jack's son is said to have been kidnapped by the machines and hasn't been seen for years. A flashback shows the moment it happened, when Jack takes Chris to explore a potentially dangerous area.
  You'd Expect: That when Jack tells Chris to stay close and not go too far, he'd listen to his dad.
  Instead: Chris runs out of Jack's sight when he's trapped in thought, climbing down a ladder into a chasm, allowing a machine to sweep down and snatch him.
  Also: Jack himself qualifies for taking his son to such a dangerous-looking place, knowing it wasn't safe to begin with.

• Highway Blossoms: In Las Vegas, Marina encounters the Trio by chance, and Mariah challenges her to a card game, with the treasure at stake.
  You'd Expect: Marina to realize that 1)she's no good at poker, 2)Mariah is obviously up to something, and 3)that the Trio don't have anything equivalent in value to the treasure.
  Instead: She takes the bait.
  The Result: Marina ends up losing her half of the treasure, and Amber has to win it back.
• Hitman (2016):
  • In World of Tomorrow, Dr Francesca De Santis is informed of the destruction of the bioweapon she was creating. She decides to go down and survey the damage.
    You'd Expect: De Santis to change into a hazmat suit as she investigates the containment room, and perhaps bring some bodyguards along with her.
    Instead: De Santis enters the containment room completely alone, dressed in her lab uniform, and is killed when the gas is pumped back in.
  • Lawyer Ken Morgan runs into his former client, hotheaded musician Jordan Cross. Cross accuses Morgan of being sent to spy on him by his estranged father. Morgan, embarrassed, takes Cross up to his suite to continue the conversation.
    You'd Expect: Morgan to speak to Cross in the lounge, library or gardens of the suite.
    Instead: Morgan, out of all places, speaks to Cross with his back facing an open window. When Morgan belittles Cross, Cross shoves Morgan out of the window and to his death. Even worse: what Morgan previously defended Cross for? The murder of his girlfriend, who Cross pushed off his penthouse roof.
• Hitman 3:
  • Everything has been going swimmingly for Arthur Edwards; his three superiors have been killed by 47, allowing him to swoop in and usurp control of the organisation. He had also located Diana and marched into her unguarded office accompanied by a guard.
    You'd Expect: Him to order his guard to shoot Diana dead. Diana is a brilliant, cunning woman who had previously taken down an organisation by infiltrating it. She very clearly can't be trusted.
    Instead: He hands her a file about 47 assassinating her parents. Despite being hurt, Diana remains loyal to 47 and continues to help him, eventually taking down Edwards and Providence.
  • At the Herald meeting, Don Archibald Yates declares that he will do what Edwards is too stupid to do and kill Diana. When Diana's companion, Tamara Vidal, protests and threatens to tell Edwards, he has her shot dead by his head of security.
    You'd Expect: Yates to order his head of security to shoot Diana dead as well.
    Instead: He orders his guards to escort Diana to his bedroom, providing more than enough time for 47 to infiltrate, save her and ambush him.
• Homeworld Cataclysm:
  • The heroes (a poorly armed mining company) stumble upon an alien escape pod apparently millions of years old. It gives away some strange biological readings. They report the finding to their superiors and request further orders.
    You'd Expect: A high-ranking military to order the heroes to immediately return to the homeplanet, so the pod could be properly studied in a safe environment (safe meaning "with capacity to incinerate it the moment some horrible, ship-consuming Virus breaks out of it") and the possible benefits could be shared with the whole planet.
    Instead: They tuck in some out-of-way corner of the galaxy and open the pod by themselves.
  • Said pod was snatched by the heroes from under the nose of a gang of space pirates. After some failed attempts to reclaim their prize the pirates finally catch up with the heroes. They see the lower section of the heroes' ship (where the pod apparently is) drifting separately and covered with some icky ulcerous stains. Upon their arrival the heroes immediately contact the pirates and implore them not to approach the section.
    You'd Expect: The pirates would take at least some caution and send some minor ships forward to investigate.
    Instead: They board the section with their entire fleet, get infected and destroy the last hope for the heroes to contain The Virus.
  • After The Virus spills on the larger part of the galaxy and gains self-consciousness, it strikes a deal with a local run-down Empire: they help it find and repair an ancient advanced ship The Virus originated from and it gives them half the galaxy to reign over.
    You'd Expect: The imperials would somehow scrap enough common sence together and turn the deal away.
    Instead: They accept, and the conflict escalates even further.
• In House of the Dead 4, during the ending The World has been beaten, it mutates even more, followed by James activating a bomb in his PDA powerful enough destroy it.
  You'd Expect: For James to chuck that thing like no tomorrow, destroying The World so he and Kate can continue fighting the zombie apocalypse together.
  Instead: James performs a Stupid Sacrifice by diving right into The World with his PDA time bomb in hand, taking The World with him.
• In Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory, Histoire is poised to bring Neptune back from the Ultradimension. The path can only be traveled once, and Histoire is worried about someone, especially the overly-curious Nepgear, interfering.
  You'd Expect: Histoire would just tell Nepgear what was going on just before going ahead. Nepgear is the more mature of the sisters, and she wants Neptune back as much as anyone; there's no reason she'd screw anything up when they only have one shot. This goes double in the Updated Re-release, where the sisters have a very good relationship and it's been firmly established Nepgear would walk barefoot over broken glass to get Neptune back.
  Instead: Histoire decides not to tell anyone, and Nepgear stumbles in and gets carried away before Histoire can stop her, resulting in BOTH Planeptune's CPUs being stranded in another world.

• inFAMOUS:
  • The first game has Zeke getting a hold of the Ray Sphere, a device that gave Cole his powers.
    You'd Expect: He'll just give it to him to save the day from Alden.
    Instead: He attempts to use it to gain powers of his own even if it costs the lives of people. Luckily, it didn't work, so Kessler asks him to join him. What did Zeke do? He does.
  • In an alternate future where the Ray Sphere disaster didn't effect Empire City, the Beast/John White arrives in Empire City.
    You'd Expect: Future Cole/Kessler to tell his family to run and own the Beast's ass with his lightning powers.
    Instead: He selfishly runs for his life along with his family.
    Result: The Whole world goes to ruin, eventually his family kicks the bucket, and it leaves Future Cole/Kessler with no choice but to ruin the life of his past counterpart.
• inFamous 2:
  • In the Good Ending, Cole has decided to use the RFI which it will kill all Conduits, himself included. Suddenly, Kuo tries to grab it off him, unable to accept this fate.
    You'd Expect: He should use his Arc Restraint to contain her while he, Zeke, and Nix went to recharge the RFI.
    Instead: They just stare at her while she runs away from them in anger. The next time they see her, Kuo is sided with the Beast.
• inFAMOUS: Second Son:
  • Augustine and the DUP capture Hank after he escaped and two people - a juvenile delinquent and an old lady - shared a few words with him in the factory he was burning down. Hank is later revealed to have been working for Augustine the whole time in a Failure Gambit to make the DUP look good and important to the public.
    You'd Expect: That Augustine would have someone trained for PR to keep the various civilians pacified while they check the perimeter for any other conduits (like Fetch and Eugene) might be skulking around. They have each of the Akomish interviewed on the record to get their side of the story to be handed to the news and maybe even have them tested for the conduit gene, a painless form of technology that they have at the ready. Odds are one of the Akomish civilians will out Delsin before it comes to that and they target him and him only.
    You'd Also Expect: That the DUP uses their vast resources to pay Betty for the burned down factory, compensating her (and likely the other Akomish that work there) for the damages their "negligence" caused, not only painting them as responsible in the eyes of the public but possibly even bribing them for their support and their silence.
    Instead: Augustine tortures all of the Akomish for information they don't really want or need and leaves them all.
    The Result: An entire Native American tribe is left to pointlessly die slow, painful deaths (which would have been a nightmare for their PR) and gives Delsin a selfless incentive to go after her. Good!Delsin saves all of their lives by beating her and destroying all trust the public had in the D.U.P., while Evil!Delsin just straight up murders her and the Akomish and leads an army of conduits pissed off at the normal, fragile humans that unfairly demonized them.
  • If the player chooses Good Karma for the first Karmic choice, Delsin admits that he is a conduit to Augustine, claiming that he "caught" it from Hank.
    You'd Expect: Augustine would have Delsin escorted away and have him tested for the conduit gene, something that is shown to be very quick and painless. If he tries using his powers to escape, Augustine encases him in concrete just like she did Hank, having eye-witness proof that he is a conduit.
    Instead: Augustine ignores his claim, shives him with concrete, tortures everyone else there and just leaves him there.
    The Result: She now has a conduit who won the Superpower Lottery, a rebellious streak and a grudge against her ready to tear Seattle and the DUP a new one to get to her.
  • Hank honestly believed Augustine when she said she only wanted to capture Delsin to talk and that she wasn't going to kill him. Hank knows that Augustine isn't exactly the kind of person to be trusted, saying "she's got a sadistic streak a mile wide".
    You'd Expect: That Hank would expect someone like Augustine was lying and ask Delsin to help him protect his daughter.
    Instead: Hank just takes Augustine's word for it.
    The Result: She betrays him, encases him in concrete and kills Delsin's brother Reggie. Now not only is he back to square one, but the one guy who had any chance in actually helping him evade the D.U.P. has a personal incentive to antagonize him. Evil!Delsin even went so far as to kill him with his daughter a dozen meters away.
  • Delsin learns that Hank Daughtry is actually alive after having been supposedly killed by Augustine.
    You'd Expect: Delsin to either leave Hank to his own devices (he'd make a good distraction to keep the DUP off Delsin's tail, especially since they have the same smoke power), or try to capture him.
    Instead: After catching up with Hank, Delsin proposes an alliance (despite both Reggie and Fetch telling him to stay away from a convicted felon who uses his powers to commit crimes) so that they, along with the other two Conduits, can take Augustine down together, to which Hank agrees.
    As a result: Hank leads Delsin into a trap. Turns out he was blackmailed by Augustine to bring Delsin to her in exchange for his daughter. Reggie has to save Delsin from Augustine and is killed in the process.
    Bonus Idiocy: You'd think Hank, who is both intelligent enough to escape from DUP clutches and well aware that Augustine "has a sadistic streak a mile wide", to know that Augustine would have no intention of holding her end of the bargain and thus he would warn Delsin ahead of time so that the two of them, along with Fetch, Eugene and Reggie, could take down Augustine together and get his daughter back. Instead, He goes along with it and Augustine ends up killing Reggie, which sends Delsin on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. And while Hank does get his daughter back, Augustine's DUP soldiers try to kill him at the marina while he's leaving town. He dispatches of them easily, but then is left to deal with a pissed off Delsin Rowe. Whether or not Delsin kills him is up to the player.
• Injustice 2: Batman and his allies still have access to the portal that allows them to bring heroes and villains from alternate Earths to theirs—it's why Green Arrow is with them. In addition, utilizing this technology was how they were able to overthrow Superman's regime in the first place. With Brainiac's forces seemingly unstoppable, Batman realizes he's going to need Superman's help after all.
  You'd Expect: For him to give the Main!Universe Justice League a call and enlist their aid once again, since their Superman is just as powerful as the evil one but is actually trustworthy. Or, if he can't do it himself, ask Green Arrow to give it a try.
  Instead: This possibility never occurs to him, and he reluctantly lets Superman out of prison, thus setting the stage for the two possible endings, one of them resulting in the Regime's restoration and him getting brainwashed.
  • It also never seems to occur to Batman, Superman, or their respective allies that they can simply use Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth to force Brainiac to tell them how to free all of the cities he miniaturized and collected.
• In Jet Force Gemini, Vela travels through the mine on Rith Essa, where she comes across Farmer, one of Mizar's minions, while disguised as a tribal.
  You'd Expect: Him to see through the disguise, as She was carrying a weapon and Floyd's hovering next to her, both of which he should remember seeing.
  Instead: He falls for her disguise and gives Vela one of the ship parts she was after, while Farmer's fate is uncertain after this incident, it's possible that it's an unpleasant one.
• During the final chase in Jurassic Park: The Game, Nima drops the dinosaur embryo canister after the T-rex forces its way underneath a skywalk while chasing Gerry, and Jess is on the verge of either falling off or being eaten after the dinosaur notices Jess. The player can have Nima either save Jess and sacrifice the canister or vice versa. If Nima goes after the canister at the expense of Jess' life, she runs outside to retrieve it.
  You'd Expect: Since the character has been shown to be quick-thinking when dealing with the dinosaur beforehand and considering that it's right next to her, that she would pick it up and immediately run back to (relative) safety inside. Failing that for whatever reason, she would remain completely still (since the T-rex's vision is based on movement) like she did a few minutes ago after the fight with Yoder even in a dazed state.
  Instead: The character grabs the Idiot Ball. After picking it up, she stops to smile and look at it. It takes six seconds for her to suddenly remember the rumbling fifteen-foot tall T-rex only a couple feet away from her. Nima completely turns around after realizing this, letting T-rex see her, and doesn't make even a token effort to run in general, even falling flat on her ass as it walks up to her.
  Result: She promptly gets eaten.
• In Chapter 13 of Kid Icarus: Uprising, Pit is infiltrating Arlon's Lunar Sanctum. At one point during the land battle, both Pit and Palutena ask Arlon why the Sanctum was built in the first place.
  You'd Expect: Arlon, being the Quintessential British Gentleman he is, to calmly explain why the sanctum was built in hopes of getting Pit and Palutena to back off or at least come to a deal.
  Instead: Arlon gets irritated and refuses to answer and Pit fights his way through the Lunar Sanctum and eventually reaches Arlon.
  Result: Arlon is defeated and the Lunar Sanctum is destroyed. And with the Sanctum's destruction, the Chaos Kin, a being of unspeakable evil is freed from the Sanctum, allowing it to wreak havoc on the world three years later. Essentially, Arlon is directly responsible for Chapters 18-21. Viridi lampshades it in chapter 20.
  Viridi: If only I'd been there at the time. Or Arlon should have explained the situation, but you know how reserved he is.
• King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow:
  • In the climax of the game's long path, Prince Alexander can find a hidden passage in the Castle of the Crown, where he can eavesdrop on people on the other side. He overhears the castle guards in a break room, where some of them ars talking to Captain Saladin about some concerning issues like Cassima's begging to be let out of her room, the castle's treasury being locked out even to the court treasurer (as the Vizier is using it as his stash of stolen treasure from the other islands), and the fact that the Vizier has even magically sealed off the treasury in the first place.
    You'd Expect: Saladin, being the Reasonable Authority Figure he is, would get suspicious, check on Cassima for himself (who could explain what's really going on and dismiss the Vizier's claim that Alexander is a threat to her), and demand to know why the treasurer can't do his job.
    Instead: He never considers any of this, dismisses the guards' concerns, reminds them of their oath to the Crown (despite Cassima still being the sole heir and therefore having authority!), and tells them to get ready for the royal wedding.
    Result: Alexander is forced to crash the wedding, and is nearly killed by Saladin when attempting to expose the Vizier's true intentions for Cassima.
• Kirby: Squeak Squad: After tracking down Doroach to find the treasure chest to find the chest containing his missing strawberry shortcake, Kirby suddenly gets it snatched from him by Meta Knight. Now, earlier Kirby had thought King Dedede had stolen the cake out of greed, but Kirby should know that Meta Knight is not the greedy sort.
  You'd Expect: That Kirby would think something was up and track down Meta Knight to ask him why he took the chest.
  Instead: He straight out fights Meta Knight and forces him to retreat.
  Result: Daroach, who had been following Kirby, steals the chest and opens it expecting treasure. But instead he unleashes Dark Nebula and gets possessed. Sure Daroach would have followed Kirby even if he had done the smart thing, but at least that way Meta Knight would still be around to stop Daroach.
  Even Worse: Kirby had spent the whole time tracking down treasures chests thinking his cake was in one of them. Who puts a slice of strawberry shortcake in a treasure chest?
• Kirby Super Star’s “Milky Way Wishes”:
  • Kirby has summoned the Galactic Nova to make peace between the sun and moon, but Marx interrupts him before he can make the wish, instead wishing to rule Pop Star instead.
    You’d Expect: Nova would realize Marx wasn't the one who summoned it, and reject his wish outright.
    Instead: Nova attempts to grant Marx his wish, making a beeline for Pop Star.
    Result: Kirby rushes back to Pop Star to cease the attack, flying into Nova's nucleus with his newly crafted Starship and damaging it. Upon defeating Marx, he flies straight into Nova, destroying it.
• Kirby and the Forgotten Land: The Big Bad, Fecto Elfilis, has just been defeated in the decisive Final Boss battle against Kirby. Elfilin has just been removed from their body, causing them to start melting and degenerating.
  You'd Expect: Fecto Elfilis would Know When to Fold 'Em and flee the scene immediately, since Kirby has stopped short of actually killing them. After all, they still had tremendous influence on the plot as the much weaker Fecto Forgo, and it's not out of the question for them to simply retreat to Forgo Dreams and start again.
  Instead: Out of spite, they decide to use the last of their power to Colony Drop Planet Popstar onto the new world, allowing Kirby to catch up to them and deal the final blow.
• In Chapter 5-4 of Knack II, Rothari and his High Goblin troops have broken into the museum and managed to find the artifact that would allow them to control the Ancient Robots. However, Knack shows up and knocks artifact out of his hand and proceeds to battle his troops.
  You'd Expect: Rothari to grab the artifact and escape while Knack is distracted fighting his troops so he complete his mission.
  Instead: He just stands there and watches the fight, not even bothering to retrieve the artifact.
  Result: Knack defeats his troops and Rothari is forced to leave the museum empty-handed.

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